A glimpse into my way of thinking

Here is a story about how I think about situations.

It was the end of the spring semester of sixth grade, I was thirteen. I was sitting in social studies & my teacher Mr. Tressel, (not the “Ohio State Buckeyes” Mr. Tressel but his brother,) was sitting with each student to give them their progress & grade potentials. When Mr. Tressel called me to his desk I found out that I had a mid B. Now, being the end of the semester with little class work left, I started to ask a few questions about assignments left to see if it was possible to get the A. His answer: Even if I got 100% on the final two assignments & the last test, I would still end up with a B.
Now this is where my thinking turns. I then proceed to ask him what if I get 0% on the two assignments & test?
From what I can remember he was taken aback, but he still did the math. If I got 0% on those two assignments & test, I would still hold onto my B. I thought about this for a second, said ok, & returned to my seat. What did I do? Nothing. Well, nothing pertaining to social studies that is.
I did not do the two assignments. I used the social studies class time for the rest of the year to finish up other course work, or sign people’s yearbooks. (Yearbook signing was a huge thing at Roehm Middle School, you would have had to gone there to understand.) When it came time for that test, I failed. Miserably. Out of 100 points I think I managed to get 20 or so.
What was this test on you might be asking? Nothing really, just the states & capitals of The Unites States of America. & yes, to this day, because of my way of thinking in this particular situation, I can not name many of the states or capitals.