Singer Tate Haywood and a LBCC Talent Show to Remember

A surprising turn of events that Haywood never expected. 

LBCC talent show turns romantic. Read how it happened.

Haywood spoke with The Commuter about the Talent Show and their special love story.

“He's not walking, so what's going on? Please don't throw up. Because he was so pale and shaking. And I'm like, please don't get sick. Please don't pass out. Please, please stay upright. If you fall on me, we're both going down.

The only reason that I thought anything was going on was he put his guitar on the ground. And I've never, in our nine months of being together, watched him put his guitar on the ground. Like, that thing is his baby. He would never. Then I got really confused. I thought something was wrong.  

He was a little scared. Because he could feel my heart rate drop. And I was like, if I pass out…It's not that rare of an occurrence for that to happen.

 I (could hear) distinct voices of people that are like, oh my God, what the hell's going on? 

I genuinely contemplated like, oh my God, I'm gonna throw up, somebody's gonna throw up. And that freaked me out. Cause I can't handle that. Like, where's the nearest exit?

And he grabbed the mic. I'm like, what are you doing? 

There was definitely a moment, when he picked up the mic, it went silent. Please don't do anything stupid because I have to go to school here. I'm begging you.

I didn't know what was going to happen. I can't breathe. I don't know what to think. 

And he pulled the world's cheesiest line. He's like, “on the topic of our love will never die.” Because that's the chorus of the song. 

And he pulls out the box, the gorgeous little purple box. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, no.

 I didn't know if I was gonna pass out. 

 And I see his mom in the background, like, in tears, crying. 

And I watch him get down on one knee. And the only thing I'm thinking is this isn't real. This is a dream. I'm not here right now. 

And as he starts to get down, everybody in that room starts screaming. 

The energy from the crowd was…I think anybody who was in the room could feel that switch of energy from, like, oh, this is just a cute piece between two people who love each other to, oh, my God, he's on one knee. There's a very distinct moment where I can hear someone in the background going, “what the…”.at full volume.

And I'm like, this is real. This is what's happening. He's asking me to marry him.

I didn't know how to react when he did it. That's why I had to grab the mic. I was like, by the way, I said yes you guys. I don't want people to think I said no. That would be horrible if I would have said no.

I said, yes, of course. And he put the ring on me and I got really nervous because I'm like, I don't know what they thought I said. So I had to be like, yeah, guys, I said, yes, I promise.

I was gonna pass out the whole time when he hugged me, I was like, I'm gonna hit the floor. And I pass out a lot. I don't know what my problem is. It just happens. So he's used to it. He's like, please don't. 

I do think my favorite part of that whole thing was after the announcer  Zhaine (Raymundo) was like, alright, so that's the end. Here's your 20 minute intermission. All of my friends ran up on stage. Like how when a football team wins, the people rush the field. We got rushed by people. I got shoulder checked by so many people trying to hug me.

One of my really close friends (the close friend who was excited about Tate’s engagement wishes to remain anonymous). And our little friend group were there and she apparently jumped out of her seat so quick to congratulate us that she bruised herself really bad. 

(It was) funny because afterwards, it was right before intermission, and these like random group of high school boys came up to me, “are we allowed to say congratulations?” “Yeah, of course.” “Can we see the ring?” And one of them started crying. He's like, “I've never seen a proposal. That was the most emotional thing I've ever seen. “

I will say it really meant a lot to me, his mom being there. And I know my mom couldn't be there. My mom has the world's most stressful job. She works in hospice care. She's the one who schedules assisted suicides and all that kind of stuff. So I get her not being there. And my dad is on dialysis three to four days a week. Top of the kidney transplant list kind of stuff, so they're busy. (It) sucked that they couldn't be there. But I FaceTimed my mom and her reaction…I showed her the ring and she was like, wow, that sure is something. And then like 10 minutes later, she texted me and said, congratulations, but not till you're 25.  Sure, mom… 

My whole family was a little confused. They're like, well, you're 20. You can't get engaged. I'm like, well, so about that…

We met in a very unconventional way that caused a lot of issues for a very long time. 

I was doing fight choreography. I was the production assistant. I was an intimacy coordinator, props…I was doing everything just to get hands on theater experience.

He was cast in “The Outsiders” as Dallas Winston, my favorite role in the show. I was so mad because I literally have a quote from Dallas on my back. And over that summer, because he was one of my fight captains, we got to talking. And he was flirting with me. He's calling me beautiful and all this kind of stuff. And I was subtly posting, like, you know, compliments go a really long way with me. 

We didn't tell anybody for a really long time. Trying to keep that completely secret. Couldn't go out in public together. We couldn't do anything together. 

And our couple of friends who knew were like, you guys need to be careful. 

I think that somehow fate brought two people who needed each other together.

There were definitely some issues, like, people didn't like the age gap or how we met or whatever. But honestly, his family have been nothing but supportive the entire time. My family loves him. 

When we decided to make it public, it was my fault. We went to the mall together and were holding hands, not realizing somebody that we both knew was standing behind us when I kissed him. 

We both had cover ups. My best friend since my freshman year of high school pretended to be my girlfriend. When I told everybody, my fake girlfriend responded with, wait, I didn't know we were breaking up, damn it. I was like, I'm sorry. And it's so funny to think about because she's gonna be my maid of honor.

We have had so many ups and downs in our relationship, especially with having to hide it, that when all of that blew over and it wasn't a problem anymore, I knew that I was gonna be with him forever. 

We know we're happy and it does feel a lot like Romeo and Juliet and the world wanting to keep them apart when they were truly in love.

 What drew me to him in the first place was he was so funny. And he will do anything for anybody. And the first time I went over to his house, seeing him interact with his little brother, because for me, I love working with kids. If somebody's good with kids, that's an automatic green flag. And seeing how he interacted with his little brother was like, I knew. And now his little brother keeps saying I'm his favorite big sister. 

And honestly, the best part of all of this was a couple days later, we went to his mom's house, and his little brother was so excited. I don't think I've ever seen a little kid more excited, because he even told us, like, direct quote. He's like, I just love, love. And it's so cute. Every time we go over there, he asks, is the wedding tomorrow? And I'm like, no, no.

I've known from day one, honestly, and I hate to be like Romeo and Juliet, like, I saw his eyes and star crossed lovers and all that, but that's really what it's been like.

It was so fun because you think, like, oh, proposals are these small, intimate things, but something about having so many people in that room and also thinking, how many of these people have ever witnessed a proposal or will ever get to witness a proposal? 

So many of my friends have been like, I've never been involved in a moment like this, and it means a lot. And in that moment, it didn't matter if people knew either of us. They were just excited to be there and excited to be part of the moment. 

It was really special. And every theater kid's dream proposal. I think every theater kid has thought about getting proposed to on stage. We met doing theater, so it's not super surprising that he’d go big with it."