Since this summer marked my family’s 10-year anniversary in McCook, I figured it was a good time to reflect on my time here. When I moved here in the summer of 2013, I knew this was the place that we were supposed to be, but it wasn’t the place I wanted to be. My heart was set on someplace bigger, more metropolitan, with a Trader Joe’s, Indian Food, and a place to drink a cup of coffee and get some Wi-Fi at 9 p.m.
Needless to say, the first two years were rough.
I spent a lot of time feeling stuck, thinking about all of the reasons McCook was even worse than I expected. Anytime I happened upon a gripe session, I was quick to pile on. I was biding my time, waiting for a chance to go somewhere, anywhere, that wasn’t here.
In the summer of 2015, I heard Chuck Schroeder of the Nebraska Rural Futures Institute talking about Broken Bow, about how it was one of the best kept secrets in rural Nebraska.
I grew up in Broken Bow. It was no secret to me that there was a fate worse than living in McCook - and that was living in Broken Bow.
Schroeder explained that Broken Bow had changed significantly in recent years. There had been a movement of community transformation in Broken Bow that had started with a group of young residents who made a pact to only talk about how amazing Broken Bow is. Before long people started to believe it. People started investing, volunteering, participating. Before long, things started to change.
I did a little research and found that it was true: Broken Bow is different and still changing.
Now I was faced with a real crisis of belief. Maybe Broken Bow wasn’t the problem. Maybe McCook wasn’t the problem. Maybe I was the problem, and maybe I had been all along.
In this moment, I came face-to-face with a very uncomfortable but life changing truth, a truth that I believe is true for each and every one of us. In this life, what I look for I almost always find.
What do I mean by that?
For two years, I had looked for reasons to be disappointed, frustrated, discontent, and even angry about living in McCook. And at every turn I found what I was looking for. The more negativity I found, the more I looked for. The more I griped, the more I found. Over and over again.
As a result, I was miserable, frustrated, and quickly growing bitter and resentful about the place I call home. Something had to change, and I knew that something was me.
Change is never easy and I think there is something about living in Southwest Nebraska that makes change even more painful, but sometimes change is necessary. I prayed and asked God to help me see my situation differently. I made a conscious effort to hunt the good stuff, and to talk about it when I found it. Slowly but surely the bitterness began to recede and eventually it was replaced by joy and even pride.
I’m always trying to get my friends from Lincoln and Omaha to come out for a visit. They wonder why one would ever visit McCook. After all, I could just come see them. It’s not their fault. They don’t see what I see and they don’t know what they don’t know.
This summer a Lincoln friend finally took me up on my offer. He and his family came for three days and stayed at the Garret House on Norris Avenue. They sat on the porch in the evenings and marveled at how beautiful it is here. They made friends with the neighbors. They visited Nebraska’s only James Beard award-winning restaurant. They had fantastic Italian food, and ordered some of the best burgers in Nebraska from a phone at their booth. They stopped and spent time admiring the beautiful downtown mural. They went on a tour of the Keystone and caught the art installation on the 6th floor.
Every time I made a recommendation or sent them somewhere, I was so excited. I knew they were going to have an amazing experience and meet kind, wonderful, and thoughtful people. They were blown away by McCook. He called me the other day to tell me he’s going to come back for a few days or maybe a week this fall, “because there’s just something about this place.” I know what he means. I found it too - once I finally decided to look.
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In addition to being a committee member of the McCook Community Foundation Fund, Kyle Dellevoet is pastor of McCook Christian Church, a music aficionado and now more than ever, a fervent community advocate.
