Hello, my name is Paul Thomas Thibodeau. I was born in Hartford Connecticut, October 5th 1970.  I am a graduate of New Britain High School, and I am currently attending my final semester at Tunxis Community College.

I never thought I would have ever attended college. Ask any of my friends. Who needs college? I do. College is for anyone, no matter what your vocation is. If you are willing to work hard enough, the things that you will take with you will carry you throughout your lifetime, no matter what vocation you decide to follow. My time here has been amazing, and I hope to carry what I have learned over the past year and a half and create new avenues of adventure for myself in not only my carrier, but to my life as well.

I started working at the age of nine delivering newspapers for the New Britain Herald until I was 16 years old. At 16 I was a full time student, while working full time at Sirois Printing. After graduating High School, I worked for Dattco Bus Company, starting as a school bus driver, later working for a few years in the stock department in coach bus maintenance, and I spent my final two years going back to school bus division, this time working on them instead of driving them.

In 1998, I left Dattco Bus for a manufacturing company called Dunham-Bush. I had the opportunity to learn and develop skills that I would not have been able to otherwise if I stayed at Dattco. I spent the next thirteen years learning the various aspect of assembly in a manufacturing facility. During my time at Dunham-bush, I was lucky to have the opportunity to learn various jobs around the plant, including but not limited to… large screw, vertical screw, and recip compressor assembly. Becoming a gas cycle (Freon) test stand operator. Becoming a certified forklift operator, and a certified sub-arc wielder.  I was able to help assisted the company in becoming certified in ISO 2001 and finally, I became a lead man in assembly for the last 6 or so years training many employees on various duties of production from within and throughout the organization (from a multitude of countries), before the company closed shop in 2011.

I started my first term of college in the spring of 2012, almost twenty-four years after graduating high school; I had never had the opportunity to go to college before, and to say I was a bit apprehensive, would be putting it mildly. I honestly did not know if I had the ability to perform well in school. Boy was I wrong! Throughout my time at Tunxis, I have managed to be on the Dean’s list every semester. In all honesty, I have never in my life thought I had the ability to be an A student…but I did it. If I could do it, so can you.

For me, being an older student returning back to school has been a very surreal experience to say the least, and to try and be able to justify my entire experience with a few written summaries and uploaded papers, I feel that I could not properly give justice to what has been given to me over the past 18 months...but I will tell you this, returning back to school has been a gift that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

All in all, college has been a wonderful experience for me, and I truly feel everyone should attend at least one semester during their lifetime. I am proud to share with you, some of my journey.