Perryville High School senior Simon Wibbenmeyer delivered the student commencement address during the May 17 graduation of the Class of 2024.
Simon is the son of Greg and Julie Wibbenmeyer of Perryville, and brother to Aaron and Lucy. His grandparents are David and Rosella Bohnert of Perryville, and Mike and Cindy Wibbenmeyer of Friedheim.
Simon has recently been in the news for his accomplishments in the world of science and engineering. He invented a device that can generate electricity from any home water source including faucets, spigots, and gutters. Simon used a 3-D printer to manufacture the device, has won several regional and state science awards, and has qualified for national and international competitions. He is Missouri’s Representative for the U.S. Stockholm Junior Water Project, and will attend the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair in Los Angeles from May 11-17, returning home just in time for graduation. He recently returned from the National Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in Albuquerque, NM.
During his time at PHS, Simon has been involved with the robotics team and currently serves as team captain. He is vice-president of the STEM Club, and is a member of the academic team, Spanish Club, and FBLA. He is president of the National Honor Society and a Science Coach researcher. Simon played for the Perryville Pirates Soccer Team, earning his varsity letter. He has participated in the NHS nursing home bingo events, highway cleanup, and Veterans Day assemblies. He and the robotics team also provided a special presentation for the regional Eclipse Conference. He has consistently been on the honor roll, and has been named the PHS Student of the Week.
Simon’s achievements also include winning at the FIRST Tech Challenge Regional Tournament, competing at the FBLA State Conference in personal finance, winning first place in his category of Engineering and Technology at the JSHS State Competition, first place overall and first place in his category at the SEMO Regional Science Fair, and earning the Naval Science Award and Yale Science and Engineering Association Award at the SEMO Regional Science Fair.
Simon's speech to his classmates:
“SUCCESS”
Good evening to the families, friends, and members of the Class of 2024. The day is finally here– the day we have been waiting for and patiently working towards. To be honest, I have been thinking about what to say in this speech for the past two years, and I can confidently say that I think I’ve found the topic people need most. I encourage you to listen to me for the next few minutes, and I assure you that you won’t be disappointed by what you hear.
It’s not unreasonable to suggest that everyone has a desire to be successful. For many, success comes in the form of money, and lots of it, but I hope that you will feel different about that definition of success once I give you my own. To that end, I’d like to talk about the movie Cars – yes, the animated motion picture that came out nearly 18 years ago. The protagonist, Lightning McQueen, loves to win, but the issue is that it’s all he lives for. Eventually, he realizes there's more to life than winning, such as being a part of a community and having friends. What I’m trying to get across to you is something similar: there’s more to life than being successful by earning a large amount of money. Instead, I like to think of success as just being happy, even if it is a choice to be happy.
Happiness comes in all shapes and sizes. Standing here I look out into the back seating area and see all of our previous teachers. I cannot even imagine how much work they have put in; countless hours of lesson planning, teaching, and obviously the part we like the most, homework. Nevertheless, they are sitting there, happy, happy with what we’ve done under their vision, and excited about what we will accomplish in the future. That happiness and contentment with what they have done is what makes them successful. There are a lot of family and friends in the bleachers tonight, they too are successful. You may not realize it, but they have also helped us be here tonight at graduation. From day one, they have been there for us. Lending a wise mind for advice, or perhaps lending an ear just when we needed to talk. Their success wasn’t defined by a large quantity of money, but rather (successful) in the sense of helping you be here tonight.
I’d also like to add that being happy and helping others solves a lot of problems. Anything can make you happy if you let it. If you’re happy, the negative parts of life seem to fade away; making you a more positive person, pushing for the boundary of success. For an example, and a little bit of fun, I’m going to bring up Cars once again. This time, in the third movie of the series, the advancement of technology catches up with Lightning McQueen, and he begins to lose and gets down in the dumps. No matter how hard he tries, he continues to lose races. Near the resolution of the movie, he once again achieves happiness, but why? Why does he all of a sudden become happy? Not because he has copious amounts of money, but rather because he gave another car the chance to succeed. At that moment, he was happy, forgetting about the many negatives he faced, content with the positives. With that, he was successful. With all that being said, it is clear that success isn’t just about having that crisp green rectangle called money. It wasn’t for Lightning McQueen, nor was it for the teachers, the family, or the friends who made it possible for us to be here today. This is why I extend a special thanks to all of those who helped us get here today.
To conclude, success does not come from money; it comes from the happiness that you possess and the happiness you give others. So, as we all walk out of this building, think about the positives, and direct your life to happiness; if we do this, I’m confident we will have an excellent start to being successful.
Again to my fellow graduates in the Class of 2024, congratulations on making it here to graduation and everything you’ve done along the way. The future is bright, and I cannot wait to see what we all do. Thank you.