History Repeats Itself. Or Does It?

As you walk around, do you notice things that were "exactly like this" the last time you were working or "exactly like this" the last time you were out of work? We are conditioned to see similarities--it is one of the ways we find some sense of security in our lives. If something is just like what we've done before, we feel more equipped to handle it, so we are just begging to find history repeating itself.
 
When you look closer, however, things are rarely exactly the way they were. While it may seem that history repeats itself, circumstances are not often exactly the same. Even if your own experiences of working or being out of work or walking certain paths are just the way they were before, the people around you rarely stand still, meaning that the picture is different. While I may still be a freelancing person, I am not the SAME freelancing person I was a year ago. While I may find myself in some of the same situations, how I handle them will be different--colored by the experiences of the past twelve months.
 
So, while every day, I see and feel things that remind me of my history, history is not really being repeated. With any luck, each day there is NEW history being made.