Numbers and in particular, time and age, are a funny thing.

When we are born, our age is measured in hours, days, weeks and months. Ask a toddler how old they

are and it will usually involve a year plus a “half” or a “quarter” tagged on at the end to show how grown

up they are. Along the way, there are the monumental birthdays like becoming a teenager, celebrating

the Sweet Sixteen, or reaching the milestone of 21.

After that milestone, birthdays don’t tend to garner as much recognition. In fact, it devolves into just

recognizing the birthdays that come around every decade. Most birthday cards, sarcastic t-shirts and gag

gifts are roasting the recipient for being so old.

Most likely when you reach your 20s and someone asks how old you are, you start to become less

specific.

“I’m in my 20s.”

“I’m still in my 30s.”

“I’m not collecting retirement yet.”

“I don’t grunt every time I get up...only every other time."

As you can tell, these answers involve being vague and include some rounding of the numbers.

There is also a mental game going on and it becomes even more relevant when you reach a certain

number: an age with a five.

When your age rolls into a new decade such as 40 and for the next four years, you are still close to being

a 40-year-old. But when that second number turns into a five, suddenly you are closer to the next number

on the age ladder, being a 50-year-old. It’s like climbing a ladder with the apex being the middle of the

decade.

There isn’t a significant different between a 44 and 46 year old except that one gets to claim being closer

to the smaller number whereas the other is closing in on the next decade.

All that being said, there is nothing wrong with getting older. Especially because we know what the

alternative is and that is, not reaching another birthday.

The number five in a date occurred to me as we celebrate the arrival of 2025. We are further away from

Jan. 1, 2020, than we are from Jan. 1, 2030. The 2020s are now more than half over.

This is relevant because five years ago McCook took on the mantra of “This is McCook’s Decade.” It was

meant to symbolize that a lot was going to happen in the community over the next ten years.

And that is true. Progress has been made.

McCook passed a sales tax bond issue to replace its 80-year-old outdoor pool with a new aquatic center

opening in July 2024. With some of those same funds, a new ball park and green space will be built

along with new housing and retail space, hopefully starting in summer 2025. The YMCA is wrapping up a

$17 million capital campaign and ready to launch a renovation/addition project with the pool scheduled to

be drained at the end of February.

McCook Community College has spent the past two years renovating the old Elk’s Hall into the new East

Campus, with its first programming in the next few weeks. Community Hospital is continually improving

its campus with plans for a new medical clinic by the hospital and student housing complex downtown.

And McCook was named an official Creative District to highlight all the great arts and culture already in

place or being planned.

But there is a problem with saying, “This is McCook’s decade.” That means it is going to come to an end

and the “it” I’m referring to is McCook’s progress. With the calendar flipping over to 2025, the decade is

already half over which would mean that we have less than five years to get things done. We are closer

to 2030 than we are to 2020, which means the end of the decade.

But communities don’t have finish lines. There is no completion date. The work is never done. And it can’t

be. Newcomers will bring new ideas. Young people will want to make an impact. And current residents

will want to see their projects come to fruition.

For years, McCook was comfortable maintaining the status quo. I’ve said it before but the problem with

status quo is that while it may seem like you are staying stable, you are actually in decline. The world is

moving forward, the country is changing, communities are evolving. If we aren’t moving forward,

changing or evolving then we will fall behind.

But fortunately, our community now has some people in leadership roles who are trying to get things

done and to move McCook forward. This has been McCook’s decade but I’m officially retiring that saying

as we embrace the mantra, “McCook on the Move.”

McCook on the Move means there is movement. There is progress. There are things being done to make

our community better for generations to come. And there isn’t an end date. Just because we’ve entered

into a “five” year, we aren’t on the downhill slide.

Instead, we need to celebrate what is being accomplished, to support those working to make things

happen and to work to make McCook on the move during 2025, over the rest of the decade and into the

future.