For the first ten years of my life, my answer to the ever-so-popular question “what do you want to be when you grow up?” was always “a mermaid.”  I wasn’t joking, I did want to be a mermaid.  Living in the sea, long flowing locks, a singing lobster for a BFF….

Another ten years have passed, and my growing appreciation for my two, separate, functioning legs has put my PhD in mermaid out of the question.  College graduation is approaching and I am still questioning what I want to be “when I grow up.”  I knew all along my answer would change (along with my major…twice), but only recently has it hit me that the question itself would change too. 

It’s not only a question of “what I want to be when I grow up,” but the bigger question: WHEN am I grown up?!  I know what it feels like to be happy, sad, angry, etc, but what does it feel like to be grown up?  Will I just wake up one morning and feel different?  Will I think to myself, oh, maybe I shouldn’t be wearing purple sparkly nail polish because I am a “grown-up?”

The spark of my revelation you ask? 16 and Pregnant.  Forget NuvaRing, this reality show is my form of birth control.  A new season is about to air (tonight!) and I can finally devote my Tuesdays to scaring myself out of becoming one of those girls.  Great logic, or so I thought… until I realized it would be impossible; I can’t become one of them, I can never be in their situation because I am not 16.  I am no longer at risk to face the perils of teenage pregnancy because of the obvious: I am not a teenager.  However, the idea of randomly becoming pregnant is just as scary to me now as it was when I was 16.  I do not feel any more ready to give birth now than I did when I had braces.  I would still have a heart attack and possibly go in to cardiac arrest thinking about having to tell my parents of the news.

So when is the switch made? At what age will my mind-set change and I will consider the idea of pregnancy feasible, or even desirable? Or, at the very least, not something that gives me nightmares about trying to fit a crib into my teeny, tiny NYC apartment?

As someone who feels the need to have all of the answers, it is difficult to leave these questions unresolved, but the truth is that they are impossible to answer.  Feeling grown up is not part of a math equation and there is no magic light switch to make it happen.  Being grown up is having the ability to look back and realize how much you have changed. (Editor’s Note: And when you wake up at 11:30 on a Saturday and think about how much of the day has been wasted…)

In reality, I will probably not realize I am grown up until I am reading this article to my grandchildren explaining how I once posted it on a “website” on this thing we used to call the “internet” in the olden days. That is, if I ever grow up enough to have children.

In the end, as I analyze the situation I am starting to believe that at age 8, I was wise beyond my years.  Maybe being a mermaid would have been the perfect solution; life would be much easier if my legs were sewn together.

So much happened I don’t even know where to start. Heads were shaved, breakdowns were had, there were babies- lots and lots and lots of babies. There were weight gains and anorexics, awesome music collaborations, lesbians coming out of the closet, my new best friend got millions of hits on you tube, Project Runway left Bravo for good. We lived without TV for far. too. long. Kanye declared himself the next Elvis (uhh okay), and Jessica Simpson’s career – well actually strike that – 2008 wasn’t really that exciting of a year for Jessica Simpsons career.

Anyway, the point is a lot happened in the world de pop culture over the past year so let’s take a look at some of our favorites. Feel free to chime in at the bottom and let us know if any of your favorite 2008 moments were left off the list.

10. Lindsay Lohan switched teams. Despite a floundering career, LiLo managed to stay afloat in the year’s headlines – and not because of her legging line (surprising, I know), but because of her romance with pal/girlfriend Samantha Ronson. I’m still not even sure if she has fully admitted to her relationship, but I can tell you this: I am happy for her and hope she embraces it so that the magazines can finally move on to something a lot more interesting,

9. Michael Phelps breaks a record. As the most unfunny season opener on SNL. Ever. I mean, seriously, the dude can swim – that we know by his crazy world records broken this year in Beijing – but has Loren Michael’s even heard the kid speak? He puts the M in Monotone. I still lie in bed at night trying to find the logic in that move.

8. Tina Fey became the official face of Funny Women Around the Globe. 30 Rock is kicking ass, Fey is all over the place, and even Sarah Palin doesn’t do Sarah Palin as well as our pal Tina.

7. “I die” became a part of every college girl’s vernacular. Thank you, Rachel Zoe. The Fur, the 12 Venti Teas every day – Rachel Zoe sure knew how to “Shut it Down” in 2008 and, frankly, I can’t wait for another season. Thank you Bravo for providing so many amazingly addicting shows giving us all another big year of procrastination.

6. Oh My God They’re Back Again. No not the Backstreet Boys (although they’re still here too!) but bubblegum pop made a mega comeback this year, making me want to say a big fat “I told you so” to every music critic from the late 90s. From the Jo Bros to Miley to Taylor and Selena Gomez, there is no shortage of shrieking 13-year-old girls staring at the posters they ripped out of Tiger Beat magazine like we did with BSB, NSync and New Kids On the Block (who, along with the Spice Girls, let us not forget, made an attempted comeback this year) so many years ago.

5. Facebook got a makeover. Some say for the better, others for the worse. 2008 brought us the choice “is” in the Facebook status, the 9 billion games and of course, the sheer terror of seeing that email proclaiming that your mother, aunt and grandma’s best friend Rose added you as a friend on Facebook. Joy.

Jill IS taking down all of her bar crawl and keg stand pictures as we speak…

4. Teenage pregnancy became acceptable. Cool, in fact! Jamie Lynn, Bristol Palin, and Juno made pregnancy look more fun than getting your makeup done for Prom, even inspiring an entire group of friends at a Boston High School to make a pact with one another to get knocked up. Take that, college applications. And Hollywood was in no shortage of breast milk either – everyone from Jessica Alba to Ashlee Simpson to Gwen Stefani to Jodi Sweetin had babies, adorned the front page of a magazine, and drooped mad pounds in like 4.3 hours.

3. Heath Ledger and Tim Russert both tragically passed away. Nothing snarky to say here. Both men incredibly talented and passionate in their work and in their lives and both will be missed by all.

2. Barack Obama was elected into office. The world stopped hating us (at least for a minute), Elizabeth Hasselback may or may not have spit up all over her cute Marc Jacobs ensemble, and history was made. Whether you’re a democrat, republican, independent , or foreigner, there is no denying the importance and excitement of November 4th 2008. Now on to Prop 8 – let’s hope 2009 is a better year.

1. Britney Spears provides escapism for the masses. Sure you lost your job and the market has gone down, down, down, but if Brit has taught us anything it’s that things can turn around… fast. One day you’re shaving your head, sporting pink wigs, going batsh*it insane with an umbrella and spending some time in the hospital, and the next you are planning your world tour. Britney showed us that the only way from down is up, as the media flipped a switch over her killer body, kick ass catchy album, tear jerker documentary and an Ellen parody to boot.

That’s right, ladies, if you are addicts of shows like Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, you are going to get pregnant.

Kind of.

A study published in November’s issue of Pediatrics showed that teens who watch shows that portray only the good, fun side of sex, and not the risks and responsibilities that come with it, are twice as likely to get knocked up as teens who watch less sexually driven T.V. (Um, is there any?)

As a dedicated fan of both SATC and GG, after reading this article I started to wonder if my sex-drive was not self-induced, but really the doing of Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass’s steamy encounters.

Answer: um, no?

Granted, I’m not a teen, but when I was, I don’t think the hornballs on Dawson’s Creek aided my decision to become sexually active. Sure, they may have got me a little turned on curious, but I never called up a dude to come do the dirty with me after watching Dawson and Joey get it on.

Media shapes a lot of what society thinks about any given topic, and it definitely plays a role in romanticizing sex, but there are many different factors when it comes to teen pregnancy that it seems almost ridiculous to place the blame on TV shows that are made solely for entertainment purposes. (Editor’s Note: Don’t take away my Gossip Girl, PEOPLE!) Even if kids were mimicing what they saw on TV, it is the lack of sexual education in many schools and at home that could be the real issue here.

Yes, TV has gotten a bit sexier than it was back in the day, but is that reason enough to place blame on TV and TV alone? Should the media be blamed and held responsible for adolescent pregnancies, or is that just totally wiggity whack?

Apparently, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper’s great-great-grandfather Cornelius Vanderbuilt was the slave owner of Michelle Obama’s great-great-grandfather, Jim Robinson. And what’s more, Anderson’s kin has personally invited Obama to visit her ancestor’s grave at the Georgetown, SC plantation named Friendfield. Not surprisingly, Michelle Obama has yet to respond to the invite.

I’m  going to assume that supporting the final days of her husband’s campaign for President of the United States is taking precedence.

We thought we’d seen it all earlier this election season when news of Bristol (daughter of Sarah) Palin’s teenage pregnancy made headlines. But now we’re talking about celebrities/politicians and slavery. Will the press never end?

Of course not.

UPDATE: The source, Mollygood.com (via the New York Daily News), has updated the story to note that Cornelius Vanderbilt came into ownership of Friendfield after Jim Robinson was enslaved there. To clarify, the Vanderbilts never actually owned Robinson as a slave. My apologies for any confusion.