I recently flew to Baltimore for a leadership conference for my fraternity, Alpha Delta Phi. It was my first time flying, and I have had an intense fear of heights my entire life. Honestly, you could say I was an emotional wreck on the inside while boarding the flight, but on the outside, I did my best to maintain my composure.

However, once the flight took off I absolutely lost myself; my hands were shaking, I was experiencing motion sickness, and I was finding it hard to breathe. Of course, the only symptom I displayed externally was my shaking hands because I was "trying to be a man" and not look like a cowering school girl, which I failed at doing of course. After what seemed like forever, we finished ascending, and it took me a minute to get over my flight jitters.

Soon after, beverages and snacks were served, as custom on airplanes. Everyone received the standard fun-size package of peanuts and water, including the elderly woman sitting beside me who had been giving me funny looks the entire flight. I took a sip of water, and casually grabbed the peanuts and tried to open them, but no matter where I tried to tear the package, the tiny pack of peanuts would not open. After five minutes, I finally opened the pack of peanuts while the old woman beside me was disposing her empty pack in the trash bag the flight attendant was walking around with.

I have to be honest with myself: I put up decent numbers in the gym and thus consider myself decently strong. But, no matter how impressive my bench press numbers may (or may not) be, I could not open a fun-size pack of peanuts before a woman was at least sixty years older than I am. Initially, a wave of embarrassment and humility hit me, but after a minute it made me laugh to myself and my self-esteem was redeemed. As funny as the failure might be, I quickly learned something from this experience.

Everybody has their own strengths and weaknesses. No matter who we are or where we come from, our individual strengths and weaknesses will never be exactly the same as somebody else's. Some things will come naturally to you, while some things you must work hard to develop. Some things will be like those peanuts: incredibly pesky and ceasing to budge. On the flight, I understood why Jerry Seinfeld made the joke about airplane peanuts being difficult to open. As ridiculous as opening a pack of peanuts may seem on the surface, it reinforced an important life lesson.

Somebody may be able to do something better than you can. In my case, it would be the old woman opening a pack of peanuts because her hands are smaller and can do more intricate things than my hands can. But, we can either let these challenges make us quit, or push us to persevere and overcome. Personally, I feel like many people often give up when they are challenged, and everybody including myself is not exempt from this group.

We must be able to step outside of whatever situation we may be involved in that seems impossible to overcome, and realize that perseverance is the key to success. Whether it is a midterm exam in college, a job interview, dealing with misbehaving children, etc., each challenge has a unique solution that most of us must fail at finding several times before we succeed. Sometimes it only takes a pack of airplane peanuts to remind you to persevere and tackle life head-on.