So the paper was released in 2008, and bitcoins weren't made in 2009. I've heard bitcoin was made in 2008 but that was just the concept in 2008, correct?
Correct. The whitepaper was released on the Cryptography Mailing List on November 1st, 2008. Here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/cryptography%40metzdowd.com/msg09959.htmlThe genesis block was created on 1231006505 (January 3, 2009).