In 1998, the world was a different place.
In 1998, the year of your birth, the top selling movie was Armageddon. People buying the popcorn in the cinema lobby had glazing eyes when looking at the poster. 
People were indeed watching movies in the cinema, and not downloading them online. Imagine the packed seats, the laughter, the excitement, the novelty.
Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The academy award for the best movie went to Shakespeare in Love. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Life Is Beautiful. The top actor was Roberto Benigni for his role as Guido Orefice in Life Is Beautiful. The top actress was Gwyneth Paltrow for her role as Viola De Lesseps in Shakespeare in Love. The best director? Steven Spielberg for Saving Private Ryan.
In the year 1998, the time when you arrived on this planet, books were still popularly read on paper, not on digital devices. Trees were felled to get the word out. The number one US bestseller of the time was The Street Lawyer by John Grisham. Oh, that's many years ago. Have you read that book? Have you heard of it? Look at the cover! 
In 1998... Smoking is banned in all California bars and restaurants. Russia begins to circulate new rubles to stem inflation and promote confidence. Nineteen European nations agree to forbid human cloning. Suspected "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty, and accepts a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. The United States Senate passes Resolution 71, urging U.S. President Bill Clinton to "take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." The first XML specification is released. Two white separatists are arrested in Nevada, accused of plotting biological warfare on New York City subways. A 66-day blackout begins in Auckland, New Zealand. Data sent from the Galileo probe indicates that Jupiter's moon Europa has a liquid ocean under a thick crust of ice. In Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, the Supreme Court of the United States rules that federal laws banning on-the-job sexual harassment also apply when both parties are the same sex. NASA announces the choice of United States Air Force Lt. Col. Eileen Collins as commander of a future Space Shuttle Columbia mission to launch an X-ray telescope, making Collins the first woman to command a space shuttle mission. The video game of the day was Metal Gear Solid.
That was the world you were born into. Since then, you and others have changed it.
The Nobel prize for Literature that year went to José Saramago. The Nobel Peace prize went to John Hume and David Trimble. The Nobel prize for physics went to Robert B. Laughlin, Daniel Chee Tsui and Horst Ludwig Störmer from the United States and Germany for their discovery of a new form of quantum fluid with fractionally charged excitations. The sensation this created was big. But it didn't stop the planets from spinning, on and on, year by year. Years in which you would grow bigger, older, smarter, and, if you were lucky, sometimes wiser. Years in which you also lost some things. Possessions got misplaced. Memories faded. Friends parted ways. The best friends, you tried to hold on. This is what counts in life, isn't it?
The 1990s were indeed a special decade. The Nineties saw the beginnings of the World Wide Web, originating at CERN. Email becomes popular. The Soviet Union dissolved. Living standards in East Asia and Europe generally improved. The Cold War ends. Iraqi forces invade Kuwait. A UN coalition force led by the US was sent to the Persian Gulf, and aerial bombing of Iraq began. The Kosovo War took place. The Ethiopian Civil War ends. Dolly, a sheep, is cloned. The Global Positioning System GPS becomes fully operational. Genetically engineered crops are developed for commercial use. Intel develops the Pentium processor. The Java programming language is created. Microsoft released Windows 95. In Los Angeles, riots occur after the police brutality case involving Rodney King. Great Britain hands sovereignty of Hong Kong to China. East Timor breaks away from Indonesian control. US president Bill Clinton was involved in the Lewinsky scandal. Dogme 95 becomes an important artistic movement in European film. Teen soap Beverly Hills 90210 has its long run. Baywatch becomes the most watched show in history. On MTV, reality television makes its beginning. Nelson Mandela is elected president of South Africa. Germany was reunified. The prediction of computer bug Y2K spreads fear.
Do you know what was on the cover of Life that year? 
6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1... it's 1998. There's TV noise coming from the second floor. Someone turned up the volume way too high. The sun is burning from above. These were different times. The show playing on TV is Power Rangers in Space. The sun goes down. Someone switches channels. There's Sex and the City on now. That's the world you were born in.
Progress, year after year. Do you wonder where the world is heading towards?
We're gettin' it straight in 98 y'all
Ah, ooh love, yeah
Tired of all the talk they're talkin' all over this town
I'm tired of all the negativity that's goin' 'round
...
That's from the song Live by Lenny Kravitz.
In 1998, a new character entered the world of comic books: Silverclaw. Bang! Boom! But that's just fiction, right? In the real world, in 1998, Jae Head was born. And Bindi Irwin. Mia-Sophie Wellenbrink, too. And you, of course. Everyone an individual. Everyone special. Everyone taking a different path through life.
It's 2010.
The world is a different place.
What path have you taken?
Find out what happened in YOUR birth year at http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/!
