Joshua Cloud has wracked up a lot of impressive accomplishments since he started kindergarten, but one of his most noteworthy has been his attendance – if he goes to school every day until his graduation next month, he’ll have perfect attendance for his entire academic career.
Cloud’s massive run of perfect attendance, impressive as it may be, wasn’t necessarily intentional. From the time he was in kindergarten, he enjoyed going to school and spending time with his teachers and friends, so he just didn’t look for excuses to miss class. He also kept a very practical mindset about his schoolwork – every day he missed meant a day’s worth of work to catch up on, and he didn’t want that.
“I came to school and I got the work done every day,” Cloud said. “I got into a rhythm and that made it easier to achieve.”
Making it this long without an absence still took motivation, though. Cloud comes from a family of ambitious learners who he wanted to stand out amongst. He did his best to maintain his health and benefitted from some luck with timing, developing a curious habit of not getting sick most years until right at the start of spring break. He’s dealt with a few close calls, including a bout with strep throat in second grade, but being at school every day was important to him.
Cloud has been studying health science at Atkins and will attend North Carolina Central University in the fall, where he’ll major in pre-medicine. His curriculum is bound to be challenging and demand a lot of his time, but he’s used to showing up when his education demands it. By now, he’s ready to put in the work without even thinking about it.
“It’s not something I ever really thought about,” Cloud said. “It’s not as hard as it might sound.”
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