This is the same thing people do with jobs, apartments, friends, everything. We make these little rules to protect ourselves from wasting time and then the rules end up running our lives. I see it everywhere now, people swiping past someone in two seconds, walking out of a store if the line is too long, bailing on plans because the first ten minutes felt weird. We've all gotten so scared of a little awkward silence that we treat it like a warning sign instead of just, you know, normal. Some of the best stuff in my life came from sitting through the boring part first, the nervous part, the part where nobody knows what to say yet. You didn't have a dating rule, you had a rule about not giving things a real chance.

Switched to doing my own nails years ago and never looked back at that $45 soak off. Watched a couple videos, bought a $12 kit, and honestly my cuticles look better than the salon.