The year is 1908. The Chicago Cubs have just won the World Series for the second consecutive year and the whole city is booming. It would not be until one hundred and eight years later that the Cubbies would win another World Series.

One hundred and eight years is a really long time… a REALLY long time. Theodore Roosevelt was president. Wireless radio broadcasting was patented. 1908 was the first year that the ball dropped in New York city on New Year’s eve, only men could vote in elections, Cy Young was still pitching for Boston, Henry Ford’s first Model T Ford truck rolled off of the front lines at a manufacturing plant in Detroit, Orville Wright made the first one hour airplane flight and Albert Einstein presented his Quantum Theory of Light.

Things were much cheaper too, respectively. For example, a Hershey bar cost a mere two cents. When adjusted for inflation that is only fifty-one cents in 2016 dollars. The above mentioned Model T cost $895. Milk – thirty-two cents. Bread – five cents. A gallon of gas – eleven cents.  

Understandably, one hundred and eight years can change a lot of things. The ways in which people act, dress or speak. Technological advancements they could have only dreamed about back then. Right now, for instance. You’re reading this article on either a computer or your phone. The first computer was not invented until 1946, a whopping thirty-eight years after the last time the Chicago Cubs won the world series before 2016.

Going through history shows the story of us. It shows how far we have come as a nation and as a global population. Where we have been, what we have accomplished, and what we will do next. Perhaps in another 108 years we will have found a cure for the most deadly of diseases that plague us today. Cancer, zika, AIDS or STDs as a whole…Donald Trump. But I digress. The future is bright for the world, and we need only look a hundred years back to see how much can change.