The county fair is the same every year, and that’s exactly why everyone keeps coming back.

Repetition is not the failure of an event; sometimes it is the product. Same rides, same stalls, same smell, same people you only see in August, and the sameness is what lets you measure yourself against last year. Novelty is exciting once. A thing that does not change becomes a place where your own change is visible.

Go to the one that repeats in your town, even if you feel too old for it. Notice what you did there at nine and at thirteen. Take someone younger and let them have the version you had, and pay attention to who you run into, because that is half of it.