During my second year of college I was confronted with a reality that forced me to consider my future from an entirely new perspective ; my father was diagnosed with a XXXX XXXX that required XXXX   XXXX and would render him bedridden for nearly a year. As a result of this medical hardship, my family would also be forced to close the plumbing business that my father and grandfather operated for over 30 years. Fortunately, my parents continuously maintained an emphasis on my education and I never lost sight of the light at the end of the tunnel. The next few years were very tough, but with funds available to me through the federal student loan program I was able to scrape by, earn my degree and pursue a promising career that would eventually provide financial security for both my family and myself. Without this financial assistance my education would have been stymied by the costs of tuition, and my story would have likely turned out very differently. 
Something I never take for granted is how special the loan program is ; despite having no collateral, no co-signer, no credit history and no source of income, I was able to acquire low interest loans to finance my education. I realize that the satisfaction of my debt allows the program to continue funding the same life-changing opportunities for others who need financial assistance completing their education. Immediately upon getting my first job I established an account for the sole purpose of managing my student loans. I configured the auto-payment function to draw from this account and then slightly overfunded the checking account in order to build up a cushion in case of a rainy day. This process of earmarking the required amount directly into this dedicated account continued steadfastly for the next 8 years with only a few exceptions. During that time I paid my initial balance of $ XXXX down to just over $ 4k. In the summer of XX/XX/XXXX I realized that I had not set up my direct deposit properly when I switched jobs and had missed one of my payments. I quickly made the payment and linked the new bank account to the student loan auto-payment system online. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I failed to set this new bank account as the default account from which the payments were made. Exacerbating this mistake was the fact that I had not updated the email address on file to the main one that I established several years ago for my professional correspondence. However in my mind there was no reason to doubt that payments were continuing on time and without interruption. I had no reason to suspect otherwise. 
During XX/XX/XXXX I accepted a position that had been vacant for several months ; with expectations of the company being sold, there were a great many tasks that needed my attention within an extremely limited timeframe, but I was excited at the opportunity to showcase my abilities. Thinking that my financial commitments were undoubtedly being met, I was oblivious to my mistake until I began the process of closing on a house in XX/XX/XXXX. While this entire debacle is of my own doing, the timing of the negative reporting was nonetheless tragic for me. It occurred immediately after I received the pre-approval to purchase a home, something I had been dreaming about and saving-up-for for over a decade. Despite immediately bringing the account current it was several days too late and the damage had already been done. Since a separate loan was disbursed each semester, this missed payment resulted in six negative reports that effectively shattered my credit score and postponed my dream of home ownership. Ironically, habits that reflect my financial self-discipline will actually be a significant hindrance to the recovery of my credit score.  Due to the financial realities I experienced at an early age, I have abstained from using revolving lines of credit. In fact prior to these delinquencies the biggest area of concern on my credit report was a lack of payment history ; something I am in fact very proud of. 
An additional concern has recently emerged that has instilled an overwhelming sense of anxiety in me. As was expected, my company was successfully sold and is currently in the process of transferring ownership to the new private equity group. As is the case with any sale or merger there exists a possibility that my position either becomes obsolete or redundant, forcing me into the job market. Credit checks have now become as routine a part of the hiring process as background checks and drug screenings, and are particularly taken into consideration in my line of work due to the sensitive and confidential nature of some of the work I do ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). The thoughts of a derogatory credit report negatively affecting my job search, and consequently the career that I have worked so tirelessly to nurture, terrifies me. The associated stress has kept me up throughout the night on several occasions over the past month.