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This 10-year-old memorized the Constitution. And he’s got the video to prove it

Posted at 12:36 AM, Aug 24, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-24 00:38:25-04

What did you do this summer? Take a trip to the beach? Go camping?

Nathan Bond probably has you beat.

The 10-year-old from Fresno, California, did a few of those things, plus he found time to memorize the entire US Constitution.

And he recited it in a video his mom, Heidi Bond, posted over the weekend to CNN iReport.

Nathan stands in his living room — clad in suit and tie, an American flag in the background — and passionately recites every word in a 25-minute video. It took him 137 days to memorize the whole thing.

Nathan Bond, 10-year-old from Fresno, California, found time to memorize the entire US Constitution summer of 2016.

Nathan Bond, 10-year-old from Fresno, California, found time to memorize the entire US Constitution summer of 2016.

He put in several hours a day

“It was pretty hard,” Nathan told CNN. “I didn’t get one break except on my birthday. The first article (of the Consitution) is really hard.”

Nathan, who is home schooled, had been studying the Declaration of Independence (he memorized that too) and really “fell in love with America and the government,” his mom said. So he challenged himself to memorize the Constitution.

He started back in April, and he worked up to four hours a day with his mom, who would break the Consitution into 40-word segments that he could remember.

“He has a mind like no other I’ve ever seen,” Heidi Bond, told CNN. “He’s a genius. He can memorize anything within seconds.”

He’s also recorded a video of him recalling the periodic table from memory.

He even worked on his memorization project during the family’s summer outings. Camping trips, hiking excurisions and boating rides — wherever he was, he worked on the project.

“Our philosphy is work hard, play hard,” his mom said.

He wants to be commander in chief

Nathan wants to be president some day, so of course he’s partial to Article 2, Section 1: the presidential oath of office.

Until then, he’d just be happy to recite the Constitution in D.C. on Constitution Day — September 16 — perhaps to even President Obama himself at the White House.