2020, A Year of Growth

Happy Holidays! My name is Sam Bibb and I’m the Marketing and Communication Coordinator at LEAP. In this post, I'd like to share with you all how 2020 was a year of growth for me and LEAP Housing Solutions.

Every year during the Holidays, I like to take the time to reflect and think about the many blessings in my life along with times of adversity that I had to go through to experience the triumphs that I did. In the year that was 2020, I had to adjust my everyday life to find happiness, success and motivation. Like myself, LEAP Housing Solutions had to do the same as COVID-19 threw us all a curve-ball.

Entering 2020, I had a lot on my plate … I was about to take my final 18 credits to get my Bachelors of Communications from Boise State University while attempting to plan my upcoming August wedding, while also working a full-time job at LEAP as the Marketing & Communication Director. These commitments got tougher in mid-march when COVID-19 threw my personal life a curve-ball.

When LEAP was forced to deal with the new challenges that COVID brought, we encouraged all LEAP employees to work from home along with conducting all meetings virtually. This wasn’t a problem because our amazing leadership at LEAP already encouraged tele-work even before the pandemic. Another challenge that was brought to our attention was on the financial side of things, we had to raise additional funds during Idaho Gives to be able to keep operating all of our programs at LEAP. Thanks to our amazing donors we raised $24,738 during Idaho Gives and were able to continue our work in the Treasure Valley.

When I was forced to deal with the new challenges that COVID brought, I had to find balance between wedding planning, school work and my LEAP duties. I used my love for mountain biking to get my mind off of the stresses that COVID-19 brought. On May 9th, 2020 I successfully graduated from Boise State, on August 7th I got married. My year consisted of plenty of ups and downs but I’m beyond grateful for all the lessons that I learned along the way.

If you take anything from this blog, take the idea of going through adversity to experience the most rewarding highs that life has to offer. Without my employers at LEAP, I wouldn’t be the person that I am today, they provided great leadership throughout the pandemic and kept me inspired in my everyday life.

During this Holiday season, take the time to think about the people that have helped you throughout your journey.