Editor’s note: This is part of a contributed collection of students and faculty experience with COVID-19.

Among the chaos of COVID-19, some students have said it has slowed their life down.

“[COVID-19] basically slowed my life down a lot,” said Devyn Leeson, senior in public relations and Ames City Council ex-officio during the spring semester. “My internship as a legislative clerk is basically over, City Council business slowed down and my classes have a lessened workload.”

Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen announced the decision to transition online classes through the end of the spring semester in March. As the transition continues, so has sleep and work schedules.

“My sleep schedule has become crazy,” Leeson said. “Yesterday, I stayed up for 24 hours trying to reset it, but instead, I just woke up at three in the morning. Really I wake up, check Canvas and hang out with my roommate and play video games.”

Adjusting to a new class schedule can also be difficult.

“I kind of just find an area that is quiet enough and do my work,” Leeson said. “There are a lot of small distractions, but I tend to manage that since I just generally have a smaller class load.”

As the pandemic continues, there have been continuing updates from Gov. Kim Reynolds and President Donald Trump.

Leeson said he has “checked out” from the news.

“Since I stay indoors all the time, I have no reason to stay up with what is going on,” Leeson said. “Even though I am inside all day, I check Twitter and YouTube less often — some of my main areas I view the news — and instead, I just play video games or other media more.”

Despite the growing concerns for the pandemic, Leeson said his stress levels have lowered since the transition to online classes.

“My personal stress levels have honestly lowered a significant amount because nothing I was a part of is as hard or urgent in the current [COVID-19] environment,” Leeson said.