Robert and Alicia Greyson had an American dream of a beginning to their life. A whirlwind marriage, love at first sight, having their dream jobs. Their first son, Nicholas, was an unexpected blessing, but two years later when they were gifted with twins, they had to shift their priorities a little bit. Alicia became a stay at home mom, giving up her job as a secretary, so Robert could continue to work for his father at the biggest law firm in Pacifica, California.

Nicholas was a dutiful son. Lillian, his twin sister, took to the academics of the world very quickly. Kale, on the other hand, marched to the beat of his own drum. Though his birth name was William, he was given the Tibetan name 'Kalsahng' by his neighbor, which he quickly shortened to Kale for simplicity's sake. He rarely responded to William even as a child. He'd always been very smart, taking on challenges with the kind of calm determination that his father exhibited every time he tackled a tough case, but there was something different about Kale.

When his curiosity had him accidentally breaking into his neighbor's apartment at age eight, that experience would change his life. He thought the man would be upset, call his parents, cast him out, but instead Gyatso, a Tibetan man, sat down and taught him everything about his religion as a punishment of sorts for breaking into his house. Instead of it being a punishment, Kale was ensnared, and begged to learn everything Gyatso knew. Over the years, his neighbor taught him all about Buddhism and the myths and realities of his people. Kale was firmly set in his path in life by the time he turned ten.

He still did incredibly well in school, calm and determined with an infallible work ethic. Robert got a job in Salem, Massachussetts just before the twins were due to enter high school, and the entire family moved with him. It was a major adjustment for Kale, especially since Salem didn't have the beaches and ocean that he'd grown so attached to, but he was adaptable and took the transition calmly and easily.

When he got into high school, the school he and Lily were enrolled in had volunteer programs to go overseas to help build shelters for East Asian countries, and after taking some classes to learn the languages, he entered into the programs and went overseas all four years of his high school, going from Taiwan to Korea and his final two years were spent in Tibet. He gained a deeper understanding of his religion while there and came back to the States even more zen. When he turned eighteen, he officially changed only his first name from William to Kale.

It didn't take long after they graduated to start looking at universities, and Gardner was the obvious choice with how high both his and Lily's GPAs were. He also applied to Cornell and Northwestern because of their botany programs, but despite being accepted by all three, he chose Gardner. Getting full ride scholarships entailed a lot more than either of them had expected, but Kale was both curious and open-minded so he rolled with it. He spent his first four years of college as an ebedi. He was so easygoing that it was a matter of survival, but he found himself not hating the ways of the school, especially as he was claimed by his art professor after a particularly nasty stalker scandal.

Didn't mean he didn't appreciate coming back for his Master's degree as a Sharath, though.