Nail School - Day 1

I just finished my first day of nail specialty school. We talked about licensure and regulations of of "beauty enhancement" industry. Overall it was an okay day, but I'm pretty unimpressed with the efficiency in the school and it was kind of boring.

The thing that bothered me (or, I guess sort of bothered me, sort of confused me) was that when we were introducing ourselves, I explained how I had gotten into nail art and loved painting my nails. I was corrected by the teacher who said, "We don't paint our nails, we polish our nails. You paint a wall." I didn't correct her, but all day it's been in my head that I totally paint my nails. I hope to paint my nails like how Van Gogh painted canvas. Do you think that there is a distinction? What do you do? Do you paint or polish your nails?