New Year’s Eve is the time we take stock of what has been made over the past year, what events, maybe tests, have made our lives more colourful, diverse, fulfilling and driven our growth. This is also the time when we think about our wishes – what do we want to fulfill next year, perhaps achieve something important? Have you thought about the “milestone” of your achievements, such as THE CERTIFICATE, a document proving a wide range of knowledge, skills, interests, positions, including the existence, quality and importance of a person?

The collection of the history museum of Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) contains numerous documentary testimonies on education, competencies, achievements, honours, interests of various personalities associated with the RSU, etc.

Human life begins with an important document, a birth certificate, and ends with an equally important death certificate. You don't have to do anything yourself to get these two. But in the long journey between this beginning and the end, there are many other documented events, each showing that with both physical and mental effort, one changes – as the great Latvian poet Rainis put it, “as you change upwards, you will surpass your destiny!”

To encourage you to look into your stock (collection, set) of documents, review the certificates you receive about your own change “up,” and create ideas for new achievements to record on the New Year's wish list, this time we invite you to look at certificates issued to outstanding personalities at all walks of life.