72-Year-Old Finishes College With Honors After 55 Years, Inspires Us All

After leaving Tennessee State University in the 1960s for true love, Darlene Mullins returned to finish her degree.

It’s never too late to go back to school. Just ask 72-year-old Darlene Mullins, who recently graduated from Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. The grandmother of four walked at the school’s commencement Saturday. Darlene left school nearly 55 years ago in the name of love. She was a track star at the historically black college and met her husband-to-be, John Mullins, in 1962, she told USA Today. “I thought he was the finest thing walking on the campus,” Darlene told the HBCU’s campus magazine in 2014

“I feel like God has given me a second chance. Actually, I feel like I’m in heaven looking down,” she told NC5. She hopes that her story can inspire others pursuing a degree. “My advice about education, I try to tell the kids try to do it the first time,” she said. “But if for any reason that you don’t, just keep going back, keep going back because it’s never too late.”