What's in a name?

How many of you can say there was a newspaper article written directly to you this week? According to www.iub.com, there are five of you.\nI don't know if you caught it in the Indianapolis Star or online, but there was an article on The Associated Press wire with the headline, "Is your last name Peyton? If so, a free education awaits."\nThis is a real article, honest. I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.\nI'm grateful to know that finally my last name has greater implications than being the same as the Mr. Manning's first name. (Although I do enjoy when people ask if we are related.)\nAnyway, the story goes that a guy named Derek Wakehurst Peyton died in 2002 and left the Brighton College in East Sussex, England, quite a bit of money. The trick is that it can only go to someone with the last name "Peyton."\nI quickly entered into a daydream where I was the famed "Peyton Scholar" (think Wells Scholar without the studying) at the prestigious school. I imagined people (mostly really hot girls with awesome British accents) running up to me and asking for my autograph saying, "Bloody hell, are you the Matt Peyton?"\nSadly, I didn't realize until I was halfway through my daydream of a free education in another country that what they call "college," we call "high school."\nReading on through the story, though, I discovered that the school has contacted all 600 Peytons listed in the local phone book, but sadly to no avail. (They obviously didn't think this through in the same way that I did.)\nGet this though: They also contacted Peyton Manning for some possible leads. (Did they walk right into my joke or what?)\nAnyway, I started thinking about what kind of person puts that kind of crazy stipulation on such a big scholarship. Then I reached a scary realization. I would!\nAfter some deliberation (and a quick check to make sure we weren't related through some crazy third cousins twice removed), I've decided that I would have liked to meet him.\nSeriously, he must have either been a complete nut or had an amazing sense of humor. Probably both, really.\nImagine the frustration for the administrators at that school and all of the crazy things they have had to do to try to find a recipient. The man was brilliant.\nAlso, every person named Peyton in Britain, and very possibly the whole English-speaking Western hemisphere, knows who this guy is right now. While it's certainly not the way I would choose to reach that level of celebrity, it's not too bad, in a postmortem kind of way.\nAnyway, while my dreams of being the famed "Peyton Scholar" have slipped away, I have learned an important lesson this week. \nThe next time someone laughs at me or calls me "vain" for Googling my name, I will point to this article and explain how you just never know when some crazy rich guy you've never met could (nearly) change your life forever.