Sometimes things just don’t go as you’d hoped. Maybe you didn’t get into AP Euro. Maybe you’ve been assigned the absolute worst responsibilities you can have at your part-time job. Maybe you’re not crazy about your new baseball coach, art teacher, or best friend’s significant other.

You have two options (assuming that making an immediate change isn’t one of them). You can lament your circumstances, or you can use it as an opportunity to learn something and maybe even grow.

Just about every situation is an opportunity. What if you found a way to be the best student in regular European history? What if you found a way to perform so well at your part-time job that you got promoted? What if you found a way to forge a good relationship with the coach or the teacher or significant other?

When I joined the newspaper in high school, my first assignment was to write an editorial on book condition, a worthwhile topic I’m sure, but it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing, and I couldn’t imagine it was something any student at school would devour and talk about. So I used it as an opportunity to practice for what at the time was my future career goal to be the next Dave Barry. The resulting column wasn’t even close to Barry-esque, but it was good enough to get me my own column on topics that I chose. And I later wrote my college essay about the experience.

Sometimes you’ll ride the bench. Sometimes you’ll get passed over. Sometimes you’ll have a bad boss, co-worker, or roommate. If you can’t change it, focus on the part you can control. Concentrate on what you can make of it.