Kurt was 17 years old when he got accepted into Juilliard.

It was always his dream to one day become a ballet luminary. To dance in the sold out ballet houses all around the world. Or to teach his passion to others so they would be able to achieve their dreams, just like his mother did.

However he never would have thought that when his dream finally came true, when he finally got the recognition he deserved - that it would mean this little to him...

But let's not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?

From the day he was born Kurt's parents Burt and Elizabeth Hummel knew that he was special. To what extension however they would only learn with time.

Kurt was quite the unusual little boy: He never liked to play with toy cars or action figures like all the others. No, Kurt only ever wanted to dance. And not just any dance - he wanted to take up ballet just like his mother had in her youth.

After a few fruitless attempts to get the kid to change his mind, Burt finally gave in and got Kurt for his third birthday (as he wished) a pair of rose colored ballet shoes. From then on he started to train with his mother every day.

Elizabeth soon realized that her little boy had an extraordinary gift. It wasn't that his technique was all that great, after all he had only been learning for a few months. But when dancing Kurt, he put his heart and soul into his every movement. Even without music his motions could make you start to cry or laugh without you even noticing it.

However not everybody thought that it was good to be different. Kurt had always had a hard time in school. It wasn't just his supposedly strange hobby or his love for school work but also his pale skin and fragile frame that made him the target of bullies since day one.

But Kurt never let it get to him. As long as after school he could come home and start pouring his, otherwise repressed, emotions into his dance he was content. And so his parents didn't see the need to interfere because it didn't seem like that big a deal.

Everything seemed to be going well until one fateful afternoon when the Hummel's got a phone call telling them that their barely 7-year-old had fallen down several flights of stairs. Kurt was lucky and got away with only a broken arm and leg and a pretty bad concussion.

But the injuries weren't what made this experience so decisive for Kurt's later life. It was the fact that nobody except for his parents seemed to believe him when he told them that he didn't just fall down all those stairs. No, he was pushed down by one of the older kids, who had been shoving him repeatedly even before that fatal afternoon. And even though there had always been many onlookers no one was willing to back up Kurt's side of the story.

So after 2 weeks of constant battle (which mostly consisted of very load conversation) first with the headmaster of the elementary school, later with the school board, Kurt's parents decided it would be better for him to be homeschooled by his mother than to go back to such an toxic environment.

What followed where the most agonizing months of Kurt's previous life because even though he and his mother were constantly home together, he wasn't allowed to dance until all his injuries had healed (which seemed to take forever). And even after that he had to take it very slow and start with light physical therapy to get all his muscle function back.

It took all of four months till Kurt's doctors finally gave him the ok to start dancing again. Of course such a long time without training took its toll on his technique and he practically had to start from scratch to get his muscles to work properly again.

But with all the extra time he had now that his mother taught him school work too, he was quickly able to enforce a new schedule allowing him to practice 3 and a half hours daily. So after several months during which he spend every free minute he got to practice he was able to regain all of his "lost" abilities before his eighth birthday.

Everything was great from then on, until his mother got into a car crash on her way home from the grocery store and was killed. After that nothing was the same anymore. The house seemed colder without her warming presence and his dad didn't laugh anymore. He only just barely managed to let a small smile grace his lips for Kurt's sake, but the boy could easily tell that it was forced.

For the first week after her death all Kurt could do was cry. He just didn't find a reason to do anything else until his tears ran out. Suddenly he felt utterly alone in the big house that was once so full of life and happiness.

It took him all of 3 weeks and several talks with his father to put on his worn-out ballet shoes again and make his way down to the basement which contained a large mirrored practice room with laminate flooring and a long holding bar across the wall on left side of the stairs.

At first he didn't know what to do with himself. His mother had always told him what to dance or how to move but she was gone now - she wasn't there to tell him anymore, couldn't ever teach him all her secrets. For the millionth time in the past month tears started to shimmer in Kurt's glasz orbs but unwilling to let them fall again he stubbornly closed his eyes.

And that's when first he felt it...

It was as if a totally new aura was surrounding him. The voice of his mother from their first dance lesson sounded strongly in his ears:

"Put your arms up like this... Shoulders square - good. And now slowly lift your weight to it put on your toes. That's it - you got it, sweetie! "

He didn't need any music because he wasn't just following the emotions given to him by others. No, he was simply expressing his own in the only way he knew how...

After that most things got easier with time. Of course he was still mourning his mother but he wasn't desperately sad anymore. He had found his outlet, his way to feel close to her again. And that made it easier for Kurt to cope with his loss.

His father hired a private tutor for him. To afraid that he would lose his son too if he send him back to school where he just wasn't safe.

7 years later found a now 15 year old Kurt Hummel more or less in the same situation. His tutor stayed until he turned 11. He then managed to convince his father that he could easily do the work alone and that's what he did from then on. He was an exceptionally bright kid never one got under an A- and still managed to train 6 hours per day in the basement. His technique had improved greatly and Kurt now even danced most of the advanced pieces flawlessly.

Kurt loved to learn something new whether it was school, ballet, cooking or even just fashion related. He was a very passionate person and easily obsessed with his hobbies. Until his dad would finally put his foot down and give him the choice of either coming to dinner or not being able to dance for two days (well there obviously wasn't much of a choice there).

At age 16 he came out to his father (only a formality really) and told him he wanted to attend The Juilliard School in New York to become a famous ballet dancer. Burt Hummel had always known that his son was too big for small-town Ohio and that he would have to let him go eventually. However this didn't make the day he first heard of Kurt's future plans any easier to endure (his baby boy was growing up after all). But nevertheless Burt promised him to always love and support him - no matter what.

And that's what he intended to do - life seemed to have other ideas...