You Can't Tell Me To Give Up My Glitter

Yesterday I read an article about nail polish.
Yeah, I know, vanity streak, whatever.
Anyway.
The point of the article was instructional.
If you are in your 20's wear your nails as wild and creative as you like.
When you're in your 30's have fun but stick more closely to fun or creative variations on classics.  For example, do a French manicure in colors.
Then it moved on to the 40's.
You can wear the seasonal colors but just a single color at a time in a plain solid manicure.
Yes, it was instantaneous, my reaction of "are you kidding me!?!"
"There are rules about how I can acceptably wear my nails now that I'm in the 40 category!?!
I think not.
I have authority issues.  I always have.  It will continue I'm sure.  I strongly dislike being told what to do, especially about something superficial and socially conformist.
I actually think they're a little off in their ideas here.
My experience would say the 20's are wilder.  Indeed.  And why not?
The 30's is a highly conformist time.  Whether newly inducted into your career or marriage and/or mommyhood, you are striving and struggling to fit in and be like everyone else and make no waves.
I think the 40's are like a rebirth of the 20's, with a little wisdom thrown in from the been there, done that, nature of life.  In our 40's we generally know who we are and what we are doing.  We have a good grasp on what we've journeyed through in our lives to get here.  We are mostly confident and mostly liking ourselves.  The 40's are another time when we look around at the outer world and find ourselves yet again saying, "you can't tell me what to do, I am who I am and I can and will do what I want to do".
Now, I don't mean it in a destructive manner, like I'm 40 and I'll drive drunk and rob stores if I want to.  Not at all.  More like "I'm 40 and I'll wear my hair or decorate my home or whatever any way I like thank you very much."
I think 40 is where you are again free to wear color in your hair if you want to or dress the way that suits you.  I think we are far from limited to a single drab color manicure.  If you want 3 colors and glitter on your nails, go for it.
Just think, when you're 80 and sitting around you're not really going to be looking back over your 40's and saying "oh, my life would have been so much better, richer, more satisfying, etc. if only I had stuck to plain manicures or never worn a purple streak in my hair.  My kids would have loved me so much more or my husband would have cherished me more if only I had never worn that skirt and those shoes together.  I would have had much closer friends if only I had never decorated my home with the things I liked instead of what was featured in the magazines."
And if we are thinking that in our 80's, it will be epic-ly sad because it will mean we've missed the point of life.  It's meant to be lived.  Full in.
Lived to the full, that's what I like.  I'm not there everyday, I'm only human, but my best days are the ones I get to the end of and fall asleep as quickly as I lay down, because I know that means I was doing and living.  Even if it was a "busy run around" kind of day, I was busy living.  There were people and activities and I hope that I encountered all of them full on and fully engaged, present in all the moments.
Yeah, all of that from a vanity moment.
No plain manicures for this chick.  I don't foresee it in any of the coming decades, so bring on the glitter.