A New Career Caring for Others Was the Right Move to Defeat the Blues There were days when Shawna Simmonds did not want to leave her bed. But it was a sagging spirit, not indolence, that kept her under the covers. Unemployment had left her demoralized. Bryan R. Smith for The New York Times Shawna Simmonds, left, a graduate of the certified nursing assistant training program at Highbridge Community Life Center. She now works with H.I.V./AIDS patients in Harlem. "I felt like I had no purpose," Ms. Simmonds, 38, said. You feel like you have no energy. It messes with your confidence. You don't feel driven anymore, even though you're looking for jobs. In 2010, she was laid off from the clerical position she held at NYU Langone Medical Center, where she had worked for seven years. Efforts to find another job were fruitless. She felt the sting of rejection each time she was turned down; every ignored job application left her enervated. An impulse for reinvention would eventually overpower her depression; Ms. Simmonds decided it was time to switch careers. In 2012, she was accepted into the certified nursing assistant training program at the Highbridge Community Life Center in the Bronx. "I'm a natural-born caregiver," said Ms. Simmonds, the oldest of 10 siblings. She found herself in just such a position a couple of years ago when she welcomed her diabetic 61-year-old uncle, Bernard Barnes, into her Brooklyn home. He had lost his apartment and required someone to bathe him, feed him and monitor his insulin levels. "He's kind of stubborn, so you'd have to hold his hand with certain things or he won't do what he's supposed to do," she said. Mr. Barnes, known for his candor, was Ms. Simmonds's favorite uncle. "He would always tell me like it is," she said. He had no filter and I totally respected that. Anything he said to me, I knew that was the gospel. The pair even weathered Hurricane Sandy together. The storm, which struck just a few weeks after Ms. Simmonds enrolled in her nursing program, left her apartment without hot water or electricity for three weeks. "It was like medieval times," she said. We had candles everywhere. I don't ever want to see a candle again. I don't want a candlelight dinner. I don't care how romantic it is. Once transportation had been restored, Ms. Simmonds resumed her routine, making the long trek from her Brooklyn apartment to her classes at Highbridge. She also checked in on her mother and an aunt, both of whom were recovering from strokes. When a counselor at Highbridge learned about Ms. Simmonds's full plate of responsibilities, he referred her to the Community Service Society, one of the agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. It gave Ms. Simmonds $191 toward a MetroCard to cover her commuting costs. "Things will work out," she said. Maybe something turned out to be more difficult than you thought it was going to be. But I always go in with the positive mind frame that I'm going to get this done. In May this year, Ms. Simmonds graduated from her program. She now works at St. Mary's Center in Harlem, caring for H.I.V./AIDS patients, and is very proud to be of help to so many. She pretends to herself that relatives are in the hospital beds, she said, adding, "I would never want anyone to be mistreated." Ms. Simmonds's uncle died in October, from complications of his diabetes. Ms. Simmonds said she kept her head up, despite the cascade of her misfortunes. It comes a little easier now that she has found employment that she finds so rewarding. "The clerical work, I just sort of fell into it," she said. But this, I choose wholeheartedly. It was what I know I wanted to do. And when she reflects on darker days, the days when her unemployment left her vulnerable and adrift, Ms. Simmonds says the career progress she has made has reinvigorated her in other ways. "When you see your starting point and then you see where you are now, it's like, "Wow, I can do it," " she said. And that gives me the motivation for everything else in my life.