The NTSA - Treasurer 2023-2024

Farewell Bio? But I just got here!!

Well, it certainly feels like I just got here anyway. I’m having a hard time reconciling the feelings of just getting started vs. the actuality of being moments away from wrapping up my time here at UCSD. 

Taking a step back, I was born on a cold Thursday morning, it was the 136th day of the year 1980.. 

Okay maybe that’s too far back, I uhh, let’s see.. I did well in school growing up, but as I inched closer to graduating high school it became abundantly clear that I was not going to be able to afford college. Once I made this realization, my motivation to do well began to dip. I didn’t completely fall apart, but I had no plan after high school and I found myself putting in minimal effort in community college. I’d enrolled because “that’s what you’re supposed to do” and 6 years later + 3 classes short of an AA degree finally threw in the towel to focus on my career. 

I’d been working since I was 15 years old & living paycheck to paycheck was the norm. I’d never known any other way & learned plenty of valuable lessons about how to NOT manage my personal finances (the hard way of course), but managed to survive/stay afloat long enough to come into a huge inheritance and now life is perfect! Riiiight, lol. Ok ok, that last part did not happen, BUT I did manage to meet a wonderful woman, who I’ve been fortunate enough to share the past 15 years with & along the way we’ve laughed, cried, supported each other, and grown into relatively functional adults! Amazing. Seriously though, I can’t sing her praises enough & I’ll be the first one to acknowledge that she likely saved my life in more ways than one. Don’t worry, I make sure to repay her with a daily barrage of terrible jokes and puns, so we’re basically even.

Anyhow, during the pandemic we found ourselves with more time on our hands than we knew what to do with & in April of 2020 I had the bright idea to return to college! I’d had the thought of becoming a therapist for almost a decade, but had sold myself the story that I was too old, and it was too late. I’d finally learned some financial lessons, felt comfortable enough to take on school loans at this point, and I figured that the time was going to pass one way or another. I could either watch all of the Netflix shows I’d been meaning to catch up on, orrrr I could invest in my future (spoiler alert: I did both! lol). I re-enrolled at De Anza college, and before I knew I was about to earn my AA-T and was applying to 4-year colleges.

UCSD was my longshot/top choice, so I was over the moooon when I got my acceptance letter! I’m still not 100% certain that there wasn’t a clerical error/there’s not another Justin Bautista out there who did everything right; but my family and I moved to San Diego before they could give me the boot =P

My first quarter and a half at UCSD was a bit lonely, but I was so busy figuring out which way was up I hardly had time to notice. That being said, I do specifically remember having the thought, “well, I guess this is just how my college experience will be.” I’d work full-time in the day, go to class at night, go straight home, study, rinse/repeat. I felt like I was on an island & it couldn’t have been more than a week later that I was introduced to the ‘UCSD Oldies’ discord channel (thank you Kell!!). I think there were maybe 10 of us who would commiserate about being non-traditional students & talk about life/classes/whatever, but for the first time I began to feel a sense of community. We all recognized the value in what we had & felt that there were others who could benefit from this sense of community as well. Those were the humble beginnings of the NTSA & I think I’ve spoken with members of the NTSA (nearly) every day since.

It’s been a blur to say the least, but I’m extremely honored to be a part of the NTSA. I’ve been lucky enough to watch the group grow, create some great memories & develop some wonderful friendships along the way. I’m sad to have to say farewell at this point, but I’m really excited to see where the organization goes from here! Thank you for reading my rambling tale; this took me longer than it should have, but don’t worry if you ever need a dumb joke or silly chat, I’ll be hanging out in the alumni channel (=

-jB