COLUMBIA, S.C. — A Richland Two graduate is celebrating more than just earning her high school diploma.
Yasmin Friday is also being recognized for 12 years of perfect attendance.
We learned how this achievement is impacting her life outside of school.
"It goes by in the blink of an eye, honestly," said Friday. "It's crazy."
In her 12 years of elementary and secondary education in Richland School District Two, Friday never missed a day of class.
"I never got sick. Thank God I never got sick," she said. "I feel like if you miss a day of school you just miss out on what's happening, so I just went."
Friday says she's this year's only graduate from Ridge View High School to earn this certificate of perfect attendance.
"It's just about having people there to push you forward. My mom, my family and everyone, they always kept me going and pushing me forward and I think that's the reason why I stayed in school all those days because I knew there was something big that was going to come out of it," said Friday.
On top of her high school diploma, Friday also earned her Associate of Arts Degree from USC Sumter.
Her advice to students on path toward the same goal? Keep going.
"You just have to keep pushing. You can't let anything stop you," she said. "My mom never let anything stop me. She always told me to go for it and that's what I did."
In August, Friday will head to her first choice college in The Big Easy: Xavier University of Louisiana.
"I'm a Bio/Pre-med major," she said. "They produce the most African American doctors and I want to be a surgeon."
Friday's perfect attendance isn't exclusive to school. She says she's never missed a day of work either.
In New Orleans, she says she plans to keep her streak alive.
"It's just having that mindset of always going there, always being there. It just expands over time," said Friday. "Hopefully I never miss a day in college, never miss a day at work in the future."
To put Friday's accomplishment into perspective, consider this: Her streak of school attendance, which is approximately 2,160 days straight, is catching up to record holder Cal Ripken Jr.'s streak of 2,632 consecutive games of baseball. She already passed "Iron Horse" Lou Gehrig's record, which was 2,130 games. Keep in mind, her total doesn't count her work days, which she has never missed.