MORROW — “It’s Never Too Late” is the motto Clayton State freshman Emily Phillips is living by as she begins the next chapter in her academic career.
At 52 years old, she’s dusted off her backpack and has picked up right where she left off more than 30 years ago.
“I was a teen mom,” Phillips said. “I had my son going into my senior year. I did start taking night classes my senior year to finish up, but that didn’t quite work out for me. I ended up working and got married.”
After earning a diploma in information processing and computer science at Metro Business College in Missouri, it wasn’t much longer until she soon found herself working at Aflac’s corporate headquarters in Columbus, Ga.
But in Columbus, Phillips also had a knack for helping others earn their degrees while working full-time.
“While I was here, I helped another friend get her bachelor’s,” Phillips said. “I helped her get her master’s. My ex-husband (also) decided to go back and get his master’s and who did he call? He called me! One of my friends said, ‘I don’t know why you’re not doing this for yourself.’ I said, ‘I don’t need it — not going to worry about it.’”
Phillips said that life just kept rolling along in the years that followed before she was promoted to her current role as a supervisor for Aflac in 2021.
But while she’s been working hard to potentially move higher up in the company, nothing could have prepared her for what she experienced at the beginning of 2023.
“Jan. 30, 2023, I wasn’t feeling well when I went to bed that night,” she said. “I woke up that morning with no hearing in either ear — couldn’t hear a thing. I contacted a very good friend of mine and let her know, ‘I think I need to go to the emergency room’.”
Phillips was soon rushed to the emergency room at Piedmont Fayette…
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