Verifying my new iPhone with my Apple ID

I purchased an iPhone 8 and have been trying to get logged into my appleID account and for some reason I can not verify/ "Approve the new iPhone" the new phone with my laptop or my old iPhone 6.

Is there a way I can verify it through email or get a verification code to get me logged into my account or change my email so I can reset the password.

My iCloud account that is saved on my laptop is from my old school email and I no longer have access to that email address. I logged out of that account and into the account I have been using the past few years and thought that I was getting somewhere and I was wrong.

I can not figure out how to approve this new iPhone with anything on my iCloud account.

Please let me know,

Ben Quarles