WASHINGTON — It's been a rough year for a lot of high school students, but an Indianapolis teen headed to college in D.C. has still been able to accomplish something amazing.
"I'm very excited," 18-year-old Taran Richardson said.
His college acceptance letters just kept rolling in.
"It was like a whole lot of mail," Richardson said. "And my mom was like, 'I'm proud and excited and all, but this mail, it's got to stop. It's got to go.'"
All told, Richardson got accepted to 65 colleges. The letters and brochures still spill across the table of the family's home in Indianapolis.
But it was one of the last ones to arrive that he was really waiting for. Richardsons aid he'll be attending Howard University in the fall.
"It was like, 'Wow!' It was a good refreshing moment," he said. "I've been waiting on this."
RELATED: 'You can do it when you believe in yourself' | 2 DCPS grads headed to Harvard on full scholarships
He's fired up to be coming to the alma mater of Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
"Foretells that I could be that next future leader in this world, but it's up to me," Richardson said.
Richardson was class president at his high school for four years. He's in the National Honor Society, an Eagle Scout, a four-sport athlete and an anti-violence campaigner.
His motto? #NoSleepInMySchedule.
Richardson's mom is a flight attendant and his stepdad works three jobs.
"I'm in survival mode. We can't change that," his stepdad Tracy Davis said. "But we changed it for him."
Richardson is planning to be an astrophysicist with NASA.
"Don't limit yourself," Davis told his stepson. "Build a spaceship. Do those things."
You get a sense there's no stopping him now.
"At one point, it was like, maybe I can get to 100," the college freshman said with a laugh about his applications.
He will take his fall classes online from Indianapolis. But he said he's eager to be in D.C.