My brain hurts

One week of learning shorthand and it’s beginning to take over my life. Turns out they weren’t lying when they warned us this would happen.

I’d like to think I’ve made a good start. We’ve learnt the alphabet in a single day, and I can already form the odd sentence. But it seems every time I learn a new word, I forget an old one. I can write ‘accident black spot’, but what was ‘and’ again? I feel like I’m five years old.

It is clear I really will have to live and breathe this shorthand business, and I have (grudgingly) accepted my social life no longer comes first. The soundtrack to Saturday night is now officially provided by the CD stuck to the inside of the Teeline textbook. But I am, secretly, enjoying it more than I thought I would so far.

If nothing else, it passes the time on the train in the evenings, although the other passengers don’t seem too impressed when I accidentally find I’m thinking shorthand out loud again. I assume 20 weeks of this are expected to mess with one’s mind a little though – why else would there be a couch at the front of classroom one?

One thing is for sure, I have to be able to write at a speed of 100 words per minute by the end of this course. My placement editor cheerily informed me on Friday that this is crucial if I want to find a job come January. It would appear there is no escape.

So later on, when the voice in my earphones asks me if I’m ready, there really is only one acceptable response.

Nicola Hine