What is your name and occupation? My name is Ms. Torres, and I am a business teacher at Niles North.
If money were no object, what would be the first thing you’d buy? My logical answer would be to pay off all my debt, student loans and everything. But, my “wants” would be: I would immediately buy some sort of a home, or if I couldn’t buy a home, at least a plane ticket to Ireland. It’s my favorite place. I’ve been there three times. I went once when I graduated college as a gift to myself. The second time, I went for a wedding of a co-worker. And then I just went last summer—I did that and a bunch of other cities in Europe with 16 of my friends, and we had so much fun.
What’s the most outrageous lie you’ve ever told someone? So, this got me in big trouble in fifth grade; I didn’t know that it was illegal to forge a signature, so I was forging my mom’s signature on these take-home grade sheets that we had. I was doing really, really badly on my state and capitals test, and so I started forging her signature in September and they didn’t catch me until January, I had been doing it that long. And now looking back, it’s such a silly thing to have hidden from my mom, and the repercussions of it were obviously way worse. But, it was also the lie they told me—I mean, it wasn’t a lie; I guess it is kind of true. But, the response they had was—mind you, I’d never gotten in trouble before—my principal pulled me in and was like, “You know, we could have the police come and arrest you for this.” And I was, like, in fifth grade, sobbing my eyes out. I’d never even gotten in trouble before, and that was the first situation with that. So, yeah.
What’s the biggest red flag in a person? When someone can’t take any accountability or ever say that they were wrong, that drives me nuts. That says a lot about a person. No one’s perfect and it’s okay to be wrong, but if you’re wrong and it affects someone else, then you should take some ownership of it.
Who inspires you in life? My cliche answer is my mom. She was a single mom, so I think seeing her work so hard to make sure that me and my sister didn’t feel like we constantly needed to struggle was something that also shaped me to want to work so hard, because I saw her work so hard. If I went with a different answer, again, this sounds super cliche, but the other business teachers here, they all have different strengths that I wish I had. Miss Mielke’s attention to detail, Mr. Paul’s want for all of his students to have cool experiences—those things inspire me. Mr. Williams—this is going to sound negative, but it’s not meant to be negative—his willingness to get involved in anything and everything; like, he doesn’t like to let anyone down, and I like that.
What’s your favorite place you’ve ever traveled? Ireland. So, specifically in Ireland, would be Killarney. It’s slow-moving; I don’t feel like I’m constantly in a rush. I don’t need to be on a schedule when I’m on vacation, so I like to do things at a leisurely pace, and I think the idea of not being on a schedule is my way of enjoying a vacation. I wouldn’t want to vacation another way. If I had to pick a second one, it would be Portugal, probably. I really liked Portugal when we went.
Who is your all-time celebrity crush? Oh, God, that’s tough… I have a couple. Paul Rudd comes to mind immediately. Niall Horan, I think is how you say his last name, from One Direction—love him. Ben Affleck, but he’s kind of fallen off a little bit. I’m trying to think… I’m sure I’m missing a big one… I think Niall is my big one, though. But Paul Rudd has just been, as long as I can remember, I’ve thought he was the cutest. It’s just his humor.
What would your dream house look like? So, I don’t know if this is not normal, but I don’t know the names of all the different houses, like the setups. But, there’s this very specific house in the movie Beautiful Boy with Timothee Chalamet, the house that his parents live in. It’s beautiful. And that is my dream house. I love that house. Everything about it—the decor, the setup, the layout, the location; it is gorgeous. And I don’t mean location as in California or Florida or wherever it takes place, I mean the location, like, I like that it’s kind of in a woodsy-ish area but not completely secluded.
If you could remove one song from existence, which one would you choose? The “Cha-Cha Slide.” I hate the “Cha-Cha Slide.” It is the bane of my existence. Any other line dance I’m not a huge fan of, but the “Cha-Cha Slide,” specifically, makes me want to rip my ears off. I hate it. Yeah, I hate it. I hate it. If I have to pick an actual song that’s not a line dance song, uhh, there’s a Lady Antebellum song, and I can’t remember what it’s called. Is it called “Girl Crush”? Is that what it is? Yes. I can’t stand that song. I don’t know what it is, I’ve just never liked it. Oh! No! The real one: “All I Want for Christmas Is You” by Mariah Carey. I hate that song. My friends know it too, and they’ll play it just because they know I hate it. Yeah. It’s my least favorite Christmas song; one of my least favorite songs of all time. I think it’s so overplayed. That one’s always my most controversial take.
What’s the best piece of advice someone has ever given you? That’s a good question. So, we have this consultant for cheerleading. Her name is Laura Duesinge, and she runs her own company. And, her big thing is all about mindset, but the one thing she’s said to me and my cheerleaders so many times that consistently sticks with me is: “You’re not growing if you’re not uncomfortable.” And so, in turn, it’s okay to fail; if you’re failing, you’re learning something from it. I find myself regurgitating those same words to my cheerleaders and my students a lot, so I think that that probably is the best advice, because once you can accept it, you’ll take failure a lot better.
What is your biggest regret in life? Not listening to my mom about college. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted, which was to go away to school, and I was under the impression that I wanted to go to a big school. My mom was like, “I know you, you don’t want to go to a big school. A medium-sized school at best, but definitely not a big school.” And I went to a big school, and I hated it. I felt like just a number, and that was the thing she explicitly told me was going to be the biggest thing I would struggle with. So, I had gone to visit another school that was the same size as the school I ended up at, which was a mile from my house, and I wish I would have gone there, because I think I would have acclimated a lot better immediately. But, I transferred after the first semester. I came home and knew I was homesick. And, I liked the school, and I had enough people that I liked, but, and this sounds horrible, it wasn’t something I enjoyed enough to keep me there. And I feel like the friends I made when I came home and went to St. Xavier are friends that I still keep in touch with and still talk to, so. And, I liked it much better there. And it was, again, a way smaller school. The same size as the one I’d gone to visit before.
What’s your favorite season, and why? Fall. Not right now, because technically we’re still in fall, and this is not fall weather, but a true fall when you can be outside in a sweatshirt and jeans and the fire’s going—that is my favorite, favorite, favorite thing. Also, one of my favorite sounds—me and Mr. Paul and Ms. Mielke did this thing a couple years ago where you had to pick your top three of all five senses—and one of my top three sounds of all time is hearing crunching fall leaves under your feet when you walk. It’s the best. And, I just like the colors; it’s pretty outside when it’s fall, when it’s truly fall.
Do you believe in aliens, and why or why not? Normally, I would say no, but because you’re documenting this, I’m going to say yes, because if the aliens are reading this, I’m nervous that they’ll come and get me. Uhh… I don’t think it’s the craziest, most outlandish idea, but I want to say no; my instinct says to say no. But, the same way I would say I don’t believe in them is the same way I would say I believe in ghosts, which I feel like, though they’re different—and everyone’s going to be like, “Well, yes, there is proven science,”—but there’s no concrete evidence enough for me to believe that they exist.
What is your motto in life? I don’t know if it’d be my motto in life, but I think my go-to and my favorite motto is if you’ve ever seen Grey’s Anatomy, two of the main characters have this thing, and they just call it “Dance It Out.” Specifically, there’s one where they’re like, “Shut up, dance it out,” And it’s basically: stop complaining about your problems. If you just shake it out for a couple minutes and let it go, you’ll feel a little bit better. Also, there’s this science with, like, you move your body and you get your endorphins going, and that makes you happier.
What’s the most pizza you could eat in a single sitting? Oh, a lot. Pizza is my favorite, favorite, favorite food. If you asked my mom, she would tell you that I could eat pizza every day, if it wasn’t going to absolutely ruin my body. And I don’t mean physically—I mean, ruin my body, like, I would probably be so deficient in other nutrients I need. But, so, in one sitting, I guess it depends where I get it from. If I get it from my favorite pizza place, which is Rosangela’s—their smallest pizza is their medium; they don’t actually have a small—I could probably eat a whole one in a sitting, if I really, really committed to it. If I ate a deep-dish pizza, then it’s no bigger than a personal-size pizza. I always think I can eat more, and I always order a small when I get Lou Malnati’s instead of a personal, and I only ever get through half of it, so. But a frozen pizza—I can eat a whole frozen pizza in one sitting, no problem.
What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t done yet? Live abroad. Like, in any capacity, whether that be for a couple weeks, whether that be—obviously, I did that trip last summer; that was longer—but I mean, truly pack up, live there. And, I love my friends, but I would want to do it on my own, so that I had the true experience of having to adjust and meet new people, and yeah.
Is there something else that you want to tell readers that I didn’t mention? Invest in experiences over products. I feel like those that do experiences feel like they’ve lived a much fuller, happier life because you’re doing things. So, invest in going to that concert, invest in going to that movie, rather than being like, “I’m going to go buy this laptop and sit at home by myself. Invest in experiences.
