Lumen Autumn 2025 - Flipbook - Page 22
How important is time to you?
Tempus fugit. Time runs away
from us all.
C: I have a clock now in my room which tells me the time and day
and date. At that level, time is very important to me. Wherever I sit
I make sure I can see it clearly, and when I go to bed at night the
last thing I ask the nurse to do is move it so I can see it. It helps me
keep my timetable.
To explore this notion, and how
our perceptions of time and its
importance may vary during our
lifetimes, we posed a series of
questions to a current student
and a centenarian alum.
S: Time is important to me, and I value my cultural perception of
time as well as understanding how time is valuable from a western
perspective.
What would you do if you had more time?
C: Well, I don’t let it bother me too much. My own state of health
surprises me. 102 is an unusually lengthy period of time. Oh
goodness, I think I’ve proved I can cope with having more time.
The student is a 22-year-old
Ngarrindjeri woman studying
medicine – the centenarian a
102-year-old historian and
nursing education pioneer.
S: If I had more time I’d spend it with my family, friends,
travelling and cultural practices. Due to the nature of my degree,
I find spending time on these things difficult. I really value these
things and spending more time on them would benefit me and
those around me greatly.
The student
and the
centenarian
Do you have any regrets about wasted time?
Is there some aspect of your culture or career which
may alter your perception of time?
C: No. I think it’s been an advantage to me not to have been
married. I feel that I’ve used my time well. I haven’t had to
struggle to have enough time. There has been enough time
for me to do what I wanted to do.
Centenarian (C): Managing time has been important and is one
of the things I used to teach my nurses. Nursing is very busy, yet I
don’t remember ever feeling completely frustrated by that. I think
I accepted that this is a sort of job where time is going to be at a
premium and just got on with it.
S: Not really, I believe that all experiences are valid and happen
for a reason, even if they’re perceived as good or bad. I think it’s
important to not regret things but take them on board as a lifelong
learning experience.
Student (S): Indigenous people have a different perception of how
time operates. Seasonal structures are usually used instead of clocks
to know what is happening environmentally and to an individual,
during a period. The concept of things happening in their own
timing, organically, based on when an individual is ready, instead of
structured times, is also another difference for Indigenous people.
There are aspects of my culture that make time different for me but
regarding my career it’s quite the opposite. Medical professionals
have tight schedules and must prioritise a lot. It’s important to
recognise both are important to me and to value the times and
places where they are prevalent or coincide with each other.
What is the most amazing thing that has happened in
the world during your lifetime?
C: To me I think it has been the increasing significance of welltrained nurses in the healthcare service. And the allocation of
greater responsibilities to those well-trained nurses. And, as an
event, I suppose World War II changed a lot of things for us all.
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