Leading Up

A trip to Israel? Usually I’m not this adventurous, but here I am, on a flight from Boston to Frankfurt, Germany. If you know much about me, then you are well aware that Peyton Hray and trans-Atlantic flight just don’t mix, but I suppose this is a small price to pay in exchange for the opportunity to dig in the ruins of a first century city.
Let me start by first by first explaining how I got here: I’ve known about this trip ever since the summer of last year when I read about it in Wofford College’s quarterly news letter/magazine. It sounded really cool, but not something that I would be able to do. Half a year later, just after Interim (Wofford’s January term), I was hanging out with one of my really good friends, Collins. He mentioned that an informational meeting for this summer’s trip was going to be held in just a few days. At that point I was only interested in hearing more about the trip; I didn’t think that I would actually participate. Yet, there I sat while the Wofford Religion department head, Dr. Byron McCane, gave his PowerPoint presentation on the excavation to come. What I felt was beyond excitement as I rushed home to tell my parents right after the meeting.
I had no idea how I was going to pay for it, but I knew that I was going to dig in Israel somehow. My deposit was down, and there was no turning back unless I wanted to lose a lot of money for no reason. Wofford’s Success Initiative organizes donors for summer scholarship opportunities, so I made a presentation of my own and was awarded half of the trip’s costs. My appreciation still goes out to SI and those who sponsor the Rampey scholarship. And of course, since my parents are so loving, they agreed to pay for the rest. From then until now, it has been a mixture of excitement and nervousness