Matthew Lega’s Official Site

The most important web page…EVER!

MY STORY

I was born on August 9, 1983 in Louisville, Kentucky, the only child of George and Nancy Lega. I grew up attending Catholic Schools. I spent grades grade K-8 at Our Lady of Lourdes School where I was involved in a variety of activities from basketball to Governor’s Cup. My friends changed over the course of those nine years despite the fact that it was a small school with most of the same people returning year after year. The one constant companion close to my age was my cousin Ryan Renn who is a year ahead of me scholastically. As different as we are, we always shared a lot of the same interests and always found plenty of things to talk about and do. I always did relatively well academically at Lourdes, and for the most part I enjoyed my time there (at least as much as one can enjoy school). However, I was very ready to move on by the time I graduated from the eighth grade in the spring of 1997.

Image from www.saintx.com

After Lourdes I moved on to a place that I consider one of the greatest places on earth. Saint Xavier High School is the absolute pinnacle of secondary education in America. Founded in 1864, it has been awarded the Blue Ribbon Excellence in Education award three times. “St. X”, as it is known in Louisville continually is among the state wide leaders in Academics, Athletics, and every other imaginable aspect of education. I spent my time there on the powerlifting team, and writing for the newspaper among other things. I attended nearly every football game (at least until work started to get in the way), and a good number of other events as well. To put it in simple terms…I BLEED green and gold. I became a third generation graduate of St. X in the spring of 2001, and am proud to call myself a tiger.

Image from www.eku.edu

I waited until the last possible minute before making my decision on where to attend college. My hope had been to attend one of a number of private universities, but that plan did not work out financially. So, in late April of 2001 I made the decision to become a Colonel and attend Eastern Kentucky University. Though I am in only my first semester, I consider myself lucky to have had things work out the way they did. EKU has been a terrific home for me so far. It’s far enough away from home for me to gain a little independence, but close enough to home for me not to feel completely isolated (the driving time is about an hour and a half). I am a secondary education major, and I plan to teach history (hopefully at St. X!). My classes for my first semester are Intro to Education, US history, Intro to Computer Science, Honors English, College Algebra, and General Student Orientation. So far, I completely love EKU…my new home away from home.

As I mentioned earlier, my ultimate career goal is to teach at St. Xavier High School, but I am leaving my options open. I hope to marry and have children one day, but for now my focus is on both succeeding, and having fun during my time at EKU. Ten years from now I see myself in a suburban house in Louisville, but only time will tell exactly how accurate that prediction will be.

The Smashing Pumpkins in action! (Image from www.blamonetwork.com )

MY HOBBIES

Being a native of Kentucky, I suppose that is only natural that one of my number one hobbies is basketball. I also love football, golf, pool, ping pong, and tennis. However, I am also a huge music buff. Raised on the California sound of the Beach Boys, I now listen to everything from Nirvana to Jewel to Fuel to the Goo Goo Dolls to Hole. My favorite band however would have to be Chicago’s Smashing Pumpkins. I won’t even get into how obsessed I am with this band. All I will say is that if you don’t already own it, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. You will not regret it. I actually play guitar and write songs myself as well, but that is really more of a hobby than anything else.

While my previously mentioned cousin Ryan is a computer wiz (his major is computer science at Purdue University), I am not so lucky. I am in a computer class at EKU, and I know how to do most basic functions (e.g. word processing, web surfing, e-mail, instant messaging) but I am by no means an expert. I also enjoy occasional computer games. I mostly play golf and pool and other games I wish I had more time to actually go out and play. I do hope to get better with computers in the future (creating this web page may help a little).

Me on one of the first days of my Honors English Class at Eastern Kentucky University.

The Smashing Pumpkins: (from left) Billy Corgan, D’arcy, Jimmy Chamberlin, and James Iha. (Image from www.blamonetwork.com)

A picture of Folk-Rock Star Jewel. (Image from www.jeweljk.com )