Disclaimer: I do not own Glee.
"Because you matter, Kurt"
That's what his dad had said, he had said that Kurt mattered, no one had ever told Kurt that. No one had ever just flat out said that Kurt mattered. To be fair, it hadn't been necessary, Kurt had always known that he mattered, that he was worth something. In fact there had been a time that Kurt had thought too highly of himself. (Well, if one got down to the bare facts it wasn't so much that Kurt had thought too highly of himself but that Kurt had just thought so little of most of the people that surrounded him. When at least 80% of the people you deal with on a day to day basis are idiots it's very hard not to develop a superiority complex.)
But at some point and Kurt had no idea when that was, Kurt had forgotten this important fact. Kurt had forgotten that he mattered, that he was worth something, that his opinions were just as valid as everyone else's. (Dalton definitely hadn't helped though, while it was nice in a way to find out that there were people out there who were smarter than Kurt, constant reminders of that fact were not good for Kurt's self-esteem.)
But this was bad and it lead to bad things happening, because if Kurt had just spoken up in the Lima Bean, had just told Blaine that he was an idiot for believing Sue Sylvester of all people or had pointed out in the emergency Warblers' meeting that Blaine's information had come from the coach of Aural Intensity that whole disastrous performance (and the embarrassment that happened after that) would have been avoided.
Because Kurt knew that coach Sylvester was just playing mind games, was not about to declare him her nemesis for not going along with her little game. (Not him, not her Sweet Porcelain, if anything coach Sylvester had always appreciated Kurt's ability to see through her BS.)
Kurt knew how the New Directions work and that the idea of ND already knowing what they were going to perform at Regionals was laughable and Kurt could have easily called one of the ND-kids (or even Mr. Shue himself) to ask if coach Sylvester was just messing with the Warblers with her so-called intel and would have gotten an honest answer.
But Kurt had kept his mouth shut, because somewhere along the way Kurt had forgotten that he mattered and that his opinion was worth something. Kurt had forgotten that as a former McKinley student, a former member of ND, a former Cheerio, he was far more capable of judging the veracity of coach Sylvester's words than Blaine was and that if Blaine refused to listen to reason Kurt could have tried to convince the rest of the Warblers that they were better of ignoring coach Sylvester. (And they would have listened to him too, Wes may be an overly formal stick in the mud, but he had no problems acknowledging that sometimes other people had access to more information than the Council.)
So here was one case were people would have been better off if Kurt had just spoken up and Kurt was certain that there were other times were he could have made a difference.
And Kurt mattered, his opinions mattered and the next time someone asked for Kurt's opinion, Kurt was just going to give it.
Even if that someone was a certain curly-haired Warbler Soloist.