Lifelong Eagle Rock resident Steve Torres is coming up on his twentieth year working at Eagle Rock High School. He was a student here as well (graduating in 2001), and describes some of the differences between then and now: different schedules, being able to buy Subway and Pizza Hut during lunch, and that there were more students than there are now. “Everything was just so crowded. During lunch it was very chaotic. I like to say that there were more fights. Well, I don’t like to say that, but there were more fights.”
The most common problems people come to him for are broken computer screens. He recalls one time that a student broke a computer in half over their knee, and their teacher came to him to get it fixed. He was actually able to tape the screen back together, repair the keyboard and get it working again, and almost wanted to give the student back the completely destroyed (but technically functional) computer again as a sort of half-punishment-half-joke, but decided to be nice and replace the student’s computer with a new one.
He almost became a math teacher, but eventually realized it wasn’t a true passion of his. Although he’s thought about teaching (and he did sponsor robotics for a few years), he’d rather work behind the scenes. He says fixing things is really rewarding, to the point that he does it outside of work too. He always tries to repair appliances and other mechanisms at home, doing lots of research about how they work and sometimes even designing and 3D printing little parts to be able to do the repair. He encourages other people, next time something needs repair, to attempt to do it themselves instead of calling someone to fix it. The gratifying feeling you get when it finally works is well worth the time invested, especially so if you’re helping someone else like he so often does. It’s clear that he enjoys what he does: it combines this desire to fix things with his love of computers and tech, and the fact that it’s in a place he loves so much makes it even better.