FERRIDAY — A friendly competition between Cailyn Glenn and his mom, Vernita Barber, ultimately helped push the Ferriday native to be valedictorian of his class — with as little trash talking as possible.

The title of valedictorian was one Barber almost reached in her days at Ferriday High School, but she ended up barely missing the mark and took the title of salutatorian instead.

The story is one with which Glenn is all too familiar.

“She would always tell me how she was No. 2 in her class, so we had this little competition going to see if I could beat her,” Glenn said, laughing. “I kept all As every year of high school anyway, but that was like an extra piece of motivation to try and beat my mom.”

Barber said the competition started the last day of Glenn’s ninth-grade year when he brought home his report card with all As and a 4.0 grade point average.

“We started joking about how I had a 3.9 throughout high school and to see if he could keep up the 4.0,” Barber said. “He told me he was going to keep the 4.0, and sure enough every time he had a report card that’s what he had.

“I never had to push academics with him, so that was just something fun we could do.”

Glenn’s hard work and dedication culminated when his guidance counselor approached him in March.

“I kind of had a feeling I was going to be valedictorian, but then Mrs. (Stephanie) Murphy came up to me and said I better start working on my speech,” Glenn said. “I can’t explain what I was going through at that moment.

“It just felt like all of my hard work had paid off, and it was a feeling of accomplishment.”

Glenn savored the feeling for as long as possible before getting hit with the realization of the main responsibility associated with the valedictorian title — speaking at the school’s graduation ceremony.

“I’m not a big public speaker so that freaked me out,” Glenn said, smiling. “I was not looking forward to that.”

Glenn eventually summoned up enough courage to take to the stage in front of all his peers on graduation night and share his speech with them.

The one piece of advice Glenn said he wanted to leave with his fellow graduates was simple.

“I just wanted to let them know that whatever they decide to do in life, make sure it’s something they like or something they’re good at,” Glenn said. “That decision is going to impact you for the rest of your life, so put some time into it.”

Glenn said he’s put plenty of time into the decision to attend Louisiana State University in the fall to study kinesiology with the eventual goal of becoming a physical therapist.

A football injury that resulted in Glenn’s own need for physical therapy ultimately helped him decide his career path.

“I got to see what that was like, and I knew that was something I could do for a living,” Glenn said. “It just feels good to help others get back to 100 percent.”

With graduation behind him and one more summer in Ferriday ahead, Glenn said he’s looking forward to beginning the next chapter of his life in Baton Rouge.

“I’m not really sad to leave Ferriday, because I know one day I will be back here helping my community,” Glenn said. “I want to be able to come back and help this school and this athletic department however I can because they helped me.”