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A Diploma Just in Case
“To live your life with wisdom, there is much you need to know;
Remember two important rules before you start:”
1 🗣
“A diploma just in case, like glasses perched on a visor.
Youth — a fading flower beneath a layer of dust on the window.” 🎶
(Dima Bamberg, “Youth”)
2 🗣\
“Love does not mean looking at each other.
To love means looking together in the same direction.” 📚\
Khayyam — not that…
Khayyam — not him?
Him, not Khayyam!
Omar Khayyam
Addendum dated 07.02.2026.
For me, this post is firmly tied to July 23, 2020.
That was the day I completed my master’s degree at the
Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sport and Health.
It was a hot summer. Diploma — received. Formally, everything was finished.
And yet inside, preparation for the next step was already underway — gathering and submitting documents to the Faculty of Psychology at Saint Petersburg State University.
The line “a diploma just in case, like glasses perched on a visor” fit that inner feeling almost perfectly.
Not devaluation — more a calm acknowledgement: yes, this is here, it matters, it is part of the path,
but life and movement are already further ahead.
Especially because even before studying at Lesgaft I had worked as a trainer, taught, and led classes,
so the diploma became not a beginning but confirmation of experience I had already lived through.
Now I see that moment as a point of fixation:
one education is complete, another is only beginning to pull me toward it.
And my gaze is already directed forward, toward that very place where movement, interest, and meaning meet ☀️
Questions about this article
01Why does the text call it a diploma “just in case”?
It matters as confirmation of a completed master’s degree and accumulated experience, but it is not treated as a final destination or the sole foundation of a professional path.
02What transition did July 23, 2020 mark?
The author completed his master’s degree at Lesgaft University while already preparing documents for admission to the Faculty of Psychology at Saint Petersburg State University.
03What determines the direction of the next step?
Not the diploma’s formal status, but the convergence of movement, interest, and meaning in the author’s chosen field of psychology.