things you are bad at that everyone else is good at: tips if you have them

i'll start

you know those little grey plastic bags in grocers or supermarkets that you pull off a roll to put fruit or vegetables in? everyone else can open them instantly and put the F or V straight in, i have to stand like a lemon* rubbing the top and blowing on it for minutes on end

*yes

lick your index finger and thumb then rub them sideways across the top of the bag, works every time

I just tried standing up on a paddleboard and what the hell, everybody else with me (also first-timers) just stood up on it like it was a bench and I kept falling in the water

Oh those plastic bags have been my secret shame for years. Thanks mark for bringing it up and NV for a possible solution.

My eight-year old son can open them right up, but he doesn't come to the store with me so often anymore.

I don't like licking my fingers in the grocery store, so I always moisten them on the closest damp leafy vegetable before trying to open a bag. Broccoli rabe, fresh spinach -- whatever has recently been misted.

If you do not feel like licking your fingers when you are out and about, you can pull one of the corners so it distends the plastic and creates texture to make it easier to open via rubbing.

I breathe on my fingertips as though to warm them -- usually moistens them enough to get the bag open.

(xp) That sounds a bit like the Peter Cook method, as demonstrated on an edition of Room 101, which can probably be googled, and which I've used ever since first seeing it.