The same situation can feel like punishment or opportunity depending on what you are prepared to see.

The same set of facts supports more than one reading, and which one you get is heavily influenced by what you are prepared to look for. This is not about pretending a hard thing is good. It is that most situations genuinely contain both a cost and an opening, and you tend to find whichever you went looking for.

With a situation that feels like a punishment, ask what it makes possible, without dismissing what it took. Hold both. The second reading is usually available and usually goes unexamined.