Rift Fournier came to our class as a guest speaker, but was a person who wasn’t your everyday guest speaker.  The words he spoke were ones of a message that I will understand for the rest of my life. Rift Fournier was the first born son and the story of how he got his name is interesting.  His mom and dad had a “rift” over what name to pick and that’s how Rift Fournier came about. He told us that when he was little his mother pushed him to read so by the time he was in thrid grade he was reading the newspaper. I thought it was great how he was always a straight A student plus a major athelte.  He told us how he got in the wheel chair due to polio. I strated quickly picking up that this man speaking to us was driven person and would and could achive anything he set his mind to.

I learned that he went to college for pre med and majored in philosophy with a minor in chemistry. He also went to law school where he learned to write very well. He let us know that all writing is the best form communicating. Rift spoke of how he left after college for Hollywood to later return to the Midwest working as a copywrite for ad agencies.  He also spoke of the Mike Douglas show that he wrote and the children’s shows he also wrote, both of which works he seemed very proud of.

I learned from him that each step in our life really is a learning process. He said that the university is there for us to gain knowledge and just learn more with each step you go through in life. I thought to myself,  ”I think that is what Rift must have been doing his whole life, letting others help him learn and always learning new things with each day.” I thought to myself again, that’s why he is probaly so successful.  He never stops learning. He also told us to always have fun in whatever we are doing and to remember how good we are at things.  We are not idiots so don’t let anyone think that we are. He said we always need to embrace ourself throughout school or our jobs and always know that its not going to be easy but if you have fun it makes the hard stuff better. He also let us know that when we are in school let them help us discover new things and discover things we already know.  Let our teachers open us up so that when we graduate we are open and we are ready to be ourself. After him saying these few things I knew why he has became to be such a succesful writer and such a well rounded man. He never gave up on himself, always willing to learn. He always was himself and always had fun no matter what. After the message he gave yes I heard him talk about all the numerous shows he has wrote for (Rift\’s Works) and the shows he likes now such as  The Closer and Law and Order, but the words he spoke about continuing to always strive to learn new things will stick with me the rest of my life and something I will try to do everyday.