Reset is a social enterprise that began its journey in 2015 when we hosted the inaugural Camp Reset. The idea was to create a digital detox summer camp for adults outside the city to help address our increasing disconnection. The experience was beyond our most whimsical dreams.

I knew Reset had shifted me, but throughout my year on reflections, I put together just how big and surprising that shift had been. It helped me address my addiction to technology, discover the power of presence and reintroduce me to play, which I learned was an incredible tool for connection, learning and healing. It helped me widen my spectrum of emotions and feel emotions that I never felt before. It was also the space through which I learned the most about justice, especially given how differently each person experienced our playgrounds, given their respective identities.

So as my year on came to an end, I made a commitment to volunteer my time (Reset has always existed via volunteer labour) and help organize an annual Reset for the next decade. It clearly did something for me and I hoped it would do the same for those who attended. A small team of us were a week away from announcing the dates for Reset 2020—then the pandemic happened and, like so many other things, we begrudgingly cancelled camp.

Relative to the collective experience, cancelling camp was not a big loss. Truthfully, it was far from the biggest challenge in my life.

But as the isolation wore me down and my mental health began to suffer, I began thinking more and more about Reset. I wondered what role an organization centred on connection had at a time of mass disconnection. I thought a lot about how our experiences with isolation, loneliness and polarization were considered an epidemic pre-pandemic and how, during the pandemic, it felt as if I was dying from disconnection. I began to feel that without intentional action, my own social recession would become a depression and I wondered how much my personal experience mirrored the experience of others.