Back Yourself Before You’re Ready
Enjoy the full speech from our Term 2 Awards Assembly guest speaker—alumna, White Cap, and US College Waterpolo Scholar, Aggie Weston (Class of 2019).
Good morning everyone.
It is such an honour to be back in the chapel and speaking today. I used to sit in these assemblies hoping that one day I would be standing up here. I just didn’t think it would happen so soon.
When Ms Harrop asked me to do this speech, I quickly declined. I told her I hadn’t achieved half of my goals yet and I hadn’t overcome enough to possibly deliver something inspiring and powerful.
The women who gave these speeches when I was here always left me in awe, and I wanted to be able to do the same. She quickly told me that I was being humble and needed to rethink my decision. So here we are.
I have heard countless motivational speakers throughout my sporting career and they often follow a similar theme. They start with success and opportunity, then face something incredibly challenging, overcome that adversity, and finish with the success story. And I love those kinds of stories
But the reason I almost said no to this speech is because I cannot fully relate to that. I am just starting mine.
Just Getting Started
Upon reflection, I felt that way because I am surrounded by people who are extraordinary.
In college sport, everyone was the best player in their school, their city, or sometimes even their country. When you enter that environment, your perspective changes very quickly. The goals that once felt huge suddenly become the standard. The achievements you dreamed about become expectations, and before long you find yourself aiming for the next target before you have celebrated the last one.
So although a lot of exciting things have happened in my career so far, I don’t feel like I have achieved my goals yet. Most of the time, I feel like I am trying to catch the next opportunity.
Athletes, especially from the outside, live an exciting and rewarding life. The medals, the team lists, the photos, the travel. These moments hold so much power and they never get old.
But we all know they are such a tiny percentage of what sport actually is. The day to day is incredibly repetitive. It is hours and hours of training that nobody applauds. It’s lonely breakfasts and lonely dinners. It is missing things, sacrificing time, and showing up anyway. Most days do not feel inspirational at all. They feel normal.
The Reality Behind the Highlight Reel
When I moved to Hawai’i after leaving Rangi, I thought reaching Division I sport in America would feel like I had made it. For years, that had been the goal, and it felt so far away when I was sitting here.
But when I arrived, I realised getting there was only the first step.
I remember one training during my first few weeks in the United States where I genuinely thought I was the worst player in the pool. I looked around and realised there were girls I had watched in the Olympics. Some were World Championship medalists. Others had been in my favourite highlight reels. For the first time in my life, I wasn’t trying to be the best player in the pool. I was just trying to keep up.
I always knew success to be loud and exciting. Instead, with 30-hour training weeks and study, I found that success is very quiet. It’s the small day-to-day wins.
Because the truth is that success is a lot less dramatic than people think. And I believe that applies to much more than sport.
We live in a world where everyone sees the highlight reel and it can make success look instant. But nobody sees the thousands of ordinary moments behind it.
I have learnt over the last few years that even when good things are happening, you can still feel like you are nowhere near where you want to be. That is exactly why I was hesitant to do this speech.
When I sat in this chapel a few weeks before finishing Year 13, I had absolutely no idea what the next three years would look like. I left New Zealand on a full-ride water polo scholarship to attend the University of Hawai’i.
I have had the opportunity to study, compete, represent New Zealand, travel the world through sport, and earn experiences that I only hoped would be possible.
Most recently, I committed to UCLA on another full-ride water polo scholarship for my final two years of eligibility, where I will continue studying and playing.
If you had told Year 13 Aggie sitting in this chapel that all of that would happen, she probably would have thought she had made it. That she was the bee’s knees.
But that is the funny thing about goals. The closer you get to them, the more they move.
When I was at Rangi, playing Division I sport felt impossible. Then I got there.
Receiving All-American honours also felt impossible. Then I did that too.
Now I find myself chasing completely different goals that would have sounded ridiculous to my younger self because the finish line keeps moving.
So when I started writing this, I kept looking at all the things I still wanted to achieve rather than everything that had already happened.
Eventually I realised that the real problem wasn’t that I hadn’t achieved enough. It was that I was waiting to feel ready.
And that brings me to the biggest lesson sport has taught me: confidence comes before success.
Confidence Comes Before Success
There is this idea that we need to completely earn the right to be confident. Like we have to achieve enough first, struggle enough first, or prove ourselves enough before we are finally allowed to be proud of ourselves.
And don’t even get me started on tall poppy syndrome. If you can’t tell, I am no short poppy!
But being an athlete has taught me the opposite.
My sports psychologist introduced me to the concept of a performance pyramid. At the base is your why. Above that is confidence. Then focus. Quality practice. And at the top is performance.
Confidence is the second most important layer. Without it, everything above becomes unstable.
A lot of people misunderstand confidence. They think it comes after achievement—after the medal or after making the team. But in reality, without confidence, those achievements become much less likely.
Confidence is built when you take the risk before you feel ready, when you keep showing up despite self-doubt, when you embarrass yourself a few times and realise the world keeps spinning, and when you fail, improve, and slowly begin trusting yourself.
In New Zealand especially, we are surrounded by this idea that being humble means making yourself smaller. We sometimes feel uncomfortable standing out, speaking confidently, or openly chasing something big.
Believing in your ability and recognising that you have worked hard enough to deserve opportunities is not arrogance.
Some of the best opportunities in my life came from saying yes before I felt fully ready for them.
Back Yourself Before You’re Ready
It’s not the confidence that comes after success, but the confidence that allows you to try in the first place.
So if there is one thing I hope you take away from today, it is this: you do not need to wait until you feel ready. You do not need to wait until you feel confident. And you definitely do not need to wait until you feel complete.
Three years ago I was sitting exactly where you are now, wondering what might happen next. The truth is, you probably have no idea where you’ll be in three years either. And that’s a good thing.
Back yourself before you’ve earned every reason to. Keep chasing the finish line. And when it moves, chase it again.
Thank you.
Aggie Weston (Class of 2019)
Rangi Ruru Alumna and US College Waterpolo Scholar