On our first day, we woke up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM in order to get to the small fishing boat that would take us across the bay from Antiparos to Despotiko at precisely 7:10. We then dug for seven hours bent beneath the heat of the Mediterranean sun. I, along with the 17 other people in the program, left the dig site that afternoon sweaty, dirty, and exhausted. I found the work mentally strenuous as well. With every pull of the trowel I feared scratching some irreplaceably important piece of pottery. With every swing of the pick axe I feared damaging an imperative part of the ancient structure. All the feelings of inadequacy and uncertainty from failing Freshman year re-surfaced and it didn’t get better on the second day, or the third; but it did on the fourth.
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Slowly we began to work as a team, something I had never been forced to do before. The heat, wind, and the dirt demanded that we either sink or swim together. We communicated wordlessly with hand motions and head nods to preserve energy. Together, we finished excavating an entire building in the temple complex in three weeks and started to excavate a second.
Despotiko is the only active privately funded excavation site in Greece. It was on this remote island in the Aegean that I learned how to work with determination. I wanted to work at Despotiko because it sounded unique and offered me a chance to live out my Indiana Jones fantasy. I applied to study abroad in order to prove that I was capable of supporting myself. Traveling to Greece alone was difficult. I had never travelled alone internationally, I knew no Greek, and had no way to get back home for another six weeks once my plane touched down in Athens. I spent the first few days in Athens wandering lost, trying to find my way to the Acropolis. Finally, I made it on a beautiful, sunny morning. I had found it early enough in the morning to beat the tour buses and had the complex basically to myself. The first time I saw the Parthenon, I was so overwhelmed with her majesty that I cried. The sweat and the blood and the tears that I sacrificed to get to her on the top of that hill was worth it.
However, the true test of my physical and mental tenacity came on the first day of excavating.
The work and my teammates motivated me to work harder. I got used to early mornings and actually began to enjoy the quiet of the sunrise. My muscles began to build from hauling dirt and my hands began to grow calluses. I stopped worrying as I learned to trust my own skills and stopped letting the possibility of failure hold me back. I became the first to discover bedrock at Despotiko, which served as the floor of ancient buildings. I began to look for more opportunities to challenge myself such as leading the group on excursions to other islands and traveling solo to other Greek cities. I still made mistakes, but I never felt the uncertainty that I arrived in Greece with.
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We also explored several islands in the Aegean including Santorini, Naxos, and Paros. Additionally, I travelled to Delphi alone and explored Athens for a few days before and after the program.