DD&L #7: Time sense, female doctors, and army medals

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Hi there.

Another week flew past.

Time seems to go faster and faster as you age. When you’re a kid, the summers seem endless. A year drawing out as if it’d never pass and be your birthday again.

They say it’s because you have less life stretching out in front of you.

I call BS on that.

Time still slows down when I’m bored. Luckily that doesn’t happen that often. Or when I can’t avoid tedious stuff. Unfortunately, that happens more often than I’d like.

I think it’s because as kids we live far more “in the moment”.

And because as we age we reflect more. Wouldn’t surprise me if that’s because we have more to reflect on.

I read about this a while ago. As a sidenote in a piece about female pilots still being hugely outnumbered (and out-earned) by male ones.

In the UK, 2025 saw female doctors outnumber male peers.

Yay!

I happen to know one’s mom personally.

Her stories about her daughter confirmed that becoming a doctor is no walk in the park. Nor a bed of roses. And graduating isn’t the end. It’s followed by gaining experience and years of specialization training.

I really admire her (and their) stamina!

Mary Edwards Walker. A phenomenon if ever there was one.

She earned her medical degree with honors in 1855.

She was an abolitionist who wanted to join the Union Army but was turned away, then got hired by Union Forces as a contractor. Becoming the first female surgeon in the US Army.

She was taken prisoner as a spy when treating wounded civilians in enemy territory. No male had wanted to cross enemy lines for the risk of being captured.

She was awarded the highest army medal: the Medal of Honor. As only one of eight civilians ever to receive it. And the one and only woman ever to do so. Her name was deleted from the Army Medal of Honor Roll in 1917 (along with 900 other recipients) in a bid to regulate its issuance and clear the Roll from undesirables. Supposedly hers was an undesirable award because she was not a commissioned officer, nor enlisted, but a contractor. Strange, because the same board declined to revoke the medals of two male contract surgeons…

Mary Edwards Walker was also a suffragette who believed women already had the right to vote. The legislation just needed to catch up. She published on the topic and testified before House of Representative committees. Sadly, she did not live to see the passage of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Another topic near to her heart and one she got arrested (!) for multiple times were the clothing conventions for women. Both uncomfortable and unhygienic in her mind.

Her “go to” attire became a short skirt with trousers underneath.

She wore it when she married. Not the only unconventional thing she did. She refused to include “obey” in her vows. And, like Amelia Earhart, retained her last name.

Her medal was reinstated in 1977. And she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2000.

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And on 42 Sidenotes

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Specifically, don’t make them realistic (the R in SMART).

Realistic goals have the most competition (thanks, Tim Ferriss for reminding me).

Ironically, that makes them harder to achieve!

And note that: most people don’t aim to high and miss, they aim to low and hit it.

Don’t remember where I read that, but it stuck with me.

And it reminds me of something Anne-Laure Le Cunff talked about: don’t have goals, have aims. Not exactly what she said, but what I took away from it.

And wrote about twice over on 42 Sidenotes. Even when I still used “goal” instead of aim, I did make it clear that SMARTing goals is not for me. What works for me is a decision followed by determination. The decision is the aim. The determination the continued aiming.

What aims do you shoot for?

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Live long and prosper.