And you are so right! But the third time was a charm, and I passed and enjoyed it for the first year. In hindsight, the only reason I was happy for a while is because I like meeting new people, and for that reason it wasn’t boring. As soon as I met Jon (the father of my daughters) while taking a deposition, and we began dating, I lost all interest in the work. It was tedious. I’m sure you can tell I’m a talker, so sitting behind a machine for half a day and listening to the conversations of others and being silent was frustrating. And of course there wasn’t an ounce of creativity to the job.

I worked from 1980 until January of 1983 when I was pregnant and had to be hospitalized.

A short backstory: After I didn’t pass the second time, I took a battery of tests at UCLA to help discover the best career choices for me. I only held a BA in sociology and by that time had spent over three years in court reporting school. The career counselor said she wished she had met me before I chose my college major because she would have encouraged me to go to hotel management school or teach high school English.