21 Questions Assignment
This assignment is worth 10% of your mark and helps answer the question “Who could I be?”
Fantasizing and imagining one's self being a "success" is a key component in attaining success. This is a creative activity that prompts you to define your own personal identities and envision the possibilities. Having an ideal, or "dream" jobis a necessary part in building personal motivation and making informed choices - ie.: starting the process of searching for one's career path.
Please follow the steps below!
1. Read the following newspaper interview on Jean Beliveau. This interview is an example of the piece of writing that you will produce yourself.
2. You must play two roles in this assignment. You will play the role of a reporter [make up a name] writing about and interviewing a famous [or not-so-famous] person. That person being interviewed will be you [your real name], living one of the lives that you talked about in your 9 Lives assignment.
3. Write an introduction that includes background on your subject. Use the Beliveau story for your inspiration. Your introduction should be approximately half a page in length [double-spaced on computer, single-spaced handwritten].
4. Use as many of the original 20 questions as you can for your own story. You may need to modify some of the questions so they make sense for your story.
5. Add a 21st question that you make up yourself.
6. Underline the questions or do them in a different colour, for easier reading.
7. Include the title “Twenty-One Questions for [your name]”, as well as a catchy sub-title.
8. When you have finished your rough copy, you must get three of your classmates to proofread your work. Each person who proofreads your work must make at least two specific comments – a strength and an improvement. See the Peer Review sheet for more details.
9. Remember to hand in your rough copy and good copy, as well as your Peer Review sheets – they are all worth marks.
You will have several class periods to work on this and I expect you to work on it during this time.
Due Date:
Twenty Questions for Beliveau
Ex-Canadiens captain, still one of the most compelling figures in sport, talks to Dave Stubbs.
______
He is stately and elegant still, a gentleman who transcends the game of hockey that he so magnificently played for two decades in the Montreal Canadiens jersey.
Thirty years since his retirement as captain of the club, Jean Beliveau remains one of the most compelling figures in Canadian sport, a man who forever has lived his personal and professional life with a simple, uncompromising credo: Give the people what they expect, and then, a little bit more.
He became the template for a generation of hockey players, the winner of 17 Stanley Cups with the Canadiens: 10 as a brilliant centre from 1953 to 1971, seven more as a front-office executive from 1971 to 1993.
Beliveau remains a towering presence in Montreal, and throughout Canada. He’s a successful businessman, an ambassador for the Canadiens, a member of Canada’s Walk of Fame and the Hockey Hall of Fame, a Companion of the Order of Canada [the nation’s highest civilian award], a man whose soft heart for under privileged children has brightened tens of thousands of young lives.
This past year, he has battled his most formidable foe: a malignant, cancerous tumour in his neck. A year ago yesterday, he endured his first of 35 radiation treatments: now, every night, he counts his blessings and gives thanks for what is good in his life: the love of his family and his very many good friends.
Three months shy of his 70th birthday, Jean Beliveau this week accepted an invitation to answer 20 questions, some serious, some less so, some uncommonly personal. His thought-provoking answers reveal a fresh side to a national treasure, a living legend valued as a link to a gentler time.
1. Who has been the greatest influence in your life?
JB. My father. When I left home at the age of 18 in December 1949, to play hockey in Quebec City, he simply told me, “Whatever you do, whatever you get involved with, do it right. Do it well. Don’t hurt anybody.”
2. What has made you the happiest in the past year?
JB. Getting rid of this tumour. It was diagnosed in early May last year, and my doctor told me last July 26 that it was gone, after 35 radiation treatments. When I was first told it was malignant, for a day and a half it was tough. But I phoned my doctor and told him, “OK, what do we have to do? We have to fight.” Now it’s a life of anxiety. Each month, when I walk out of my doctor’s office and he’s said, “Jean, everything is fine,” I feel good. But a few days prior to my next visit, I wonder, “Will they find something?”
3. You want to sleep on your long flight, but the person beside you wants to talk through the night. Who would you want that person to be?
JB. Nelson Mandela. I have a feeling it could be a very interesting conversation. I’ve read about him, read his own book. I admire what he has done for South Africa. I’ve seen what a man can do when he puts his mind to it.
4. You’re ordered to evacuate your house and you have time to take only one item with you. What do you take?
JB. My little dog, Kiwi. He’s a poodle, eight years old, and he follows Elise [his wife of 48 years] and me everywhere.
5. You can relive your life in any period of time. When would it be, and why?
JB. I cannot imagine my life being better than it has been since 1948, my first days in hockey in Victoriaville, to this day. I find myself very fortunate to have spent my life in a game I enjoyed playing, and that I still enjoy watching.
6. You’re stranded on an island, and you’re allowed one book, one record and one movie. What would they be?
JB. The Bible. I read it a little more in the past than I do now, but it’s a book I could read the rest of my life. Puccini’s La Boheme. I debated between Puccini and Verdi, but to me, La Boheme is so beautiful. And The Godfather. All three if I could get them in a boxed set! I thought Marlon Brando and Al Pacino played their roles so well.
7. You sneak into the kitchen seeking what guilty food pleasure?
JB. Fresh bread. Elise and I are regular visitors to the bakery; too often, unfortunately [laughs]. And pasta would be a close second.
8. If you could share this bread and pasta at dinner with any single person in history, who would it be, and why?
JB. Winston Churchill, the British prime minister. He fascinates me, what he went through during the war. He saved England, and the world.
9. What was your first job?
JB. My father worked for Shawnigan Water and Power, and for a couple of summers I was a helper with a crew working on a new power line. I was supposed to be 18, but I wasn’t [laughs]. I was pretty tall when I was 15 or 16.
10. Of everything you’ve won or you own, what do you cherish most?
JB. Good health. A year ago, I might have taken a more material direction, but after what I’ve been through the past year, and what I’m still going through, I believe the most important thing you can have is your health. If you don’t, there’s nothing you can do.
11. When did you last cry?
JB. Last night, I was watching a videotape of the Three Tenors’ 1994 concert in Los Angeles. I didn’t cry, but I had tears in my eyes. I have a [sound] system I can play very loud if I want. I get very emotional listening to this concert.
12. What is the most unusual item you’ve ever been asked to autograph?
JB. A brassiere. And yes, the young lady was in it [laughs]. This goes back maybe 35 years. There were a lot of people around at the Forum, and she asked, “Would you sign this?” At first I didn’t know what to do, but, finally, she insisted, so I just said, “Ah, oui.”
13. What is a perfect day away from your daily responsibilities?
JB. Sitting in my backyard with a good book. I’m always in the public, so when I have a few quiet hours, especially on a nice day, I like to just sit there under the tree and read.
14. Who was your favourite school teacher, and why?
JB. I’ve always respected the Sacred Heart brothers in Victoriaville for their care of our education and organization of our sports. In a small Quebec town in the early 1940s there were no hockey federations.
15. What is your single biggest regret?
JB. [lengthy pause] That I was not at the side of my mother and father when they died. My mother died in August 1957, my father in February 1975. I was away both times, and though I rushed back to Victoriaville, they were gone by the time I arrived home.
16. Of all the highlights in your hockey career, which is the most memorable?
JB. I have all these Stanley Cups, and each one of them brings me great joy. But what made me happiest was when my teammates elected me captain of the Canadiens in 1961.
17. When and where will you take your next holiday?
JB. In September, to Scotland, where we have good friends. We’ll go way up north, then we’ll fly to their beautiful home on Spain’s Costa del Sol. I’ve always read about Barcelona, and I’d like to go there, too.
18. Who is the most impressive person you’ve met in your travels?
JB. In August 1971, Elise, Helene [their only child], my father, my stepmother and I had a private audience with the Pope Paul VI. At 10 o’clock in the morning, we could hear his public audience in the gardens of his summer retreat near Rome, in the town of Castel Gandolfo, and we knew that, in one hour, we’d meet him privately. I will never forget this moment.
19. What is the one thing you forever wanted as a child, but never had?
JB. [pauses] I don’t honestly have an answer for this. Even if we were a large family, my father worked very hard and always tried to provide for us: hockey in winter, baseball in summer. Let me tell you something: It’s not new equipment that makes an athlete. When you love the game, you don’t care what equipment you own, you find a way to play with what you have.
20. How do you wish to be remembered?
JB. As a team player, both in hockey and in life. Whenever I’ve been part of an organization, whether on a hockey club or helping to organize a golf tournament or a dinner, all I’ve ever had in mind is being part of the team.
Stubbs, Dave. “Twenty Questions for Beliveau.” The Ottawa Citizen 2 June 2001, F1, F5.