21 Jun Adulting Is Confusing. So We Talked About It.

Youth Day is supposed to be about young people. But too often, the events held in its name talk “at” young people instead of “with” them. On Saturday, Chomee Online tried something different.

“Adulting is Confusing” — our inaugural Youth Day gathering — brought young people together at Old Parks Sports Ground in Randburg for four hours of honest conversation about the things nobody really prepares you for: money, identity, mental health, career pressure, and the quiet weight of figuring out who you are while the world expects you to already know.

The panel — Reabetsoe Botshelo Tau, Reabetsoe Mokoena, and Caitlin Mtuli — didn’t arrive with rehearsed answers. Facilitated by Mahalia Molema-Moyo of Mahalia Ignite Coaching, the conversation moved through identity and belonging, the emotional cost of being “the one who makes it,” money and what financial freedom actually looks like in practice, and what it feels like to build a life in a new city when nobody warned you how hard that gets.

One of the panellists said it plainly afterwards: “I learned just as much as I shared.”

That’s what happens when the room is set up for honesty instead of performance.

Attendees didn’t just listen. They actively engaged from the moment they arrived. They broke into Conversation Circles, small groups sitting with a single prompt: “What’s something you’re still figuring out?” And when it was time to share back with the full room, they did.

One attendee shared that watching the day unfold reminded them how much potential exists in young people when they’re simply given the space to speak and to belong. Another mentioned — candidly — that they woke up late and barely made it. That detail matters. It’s the kind of thing people usually leave out of the highlight reel. The fact that they said it out loud tells you everything about the kind of space the day created.

There was also a small competition. One team won.

South African youth are constantly told to be resilient, to hustle, to represent. What they’re rarely given is a room where they don’t have to perform any of that. Where uncertainty isn’t a weakness. Where “I’m still figuring it out” is not just acceptable, it’s the whole conversation.

That’s what Adulting is Confusing was. And it’s just the beginning.

The Adulting Series is coming to more cities. Follow @chomeeonline to find out where we’re going next.

When YOUTH grows, we ALL grow.