Em dredges up the sentimental schlock and travel plans

So I was working another closing shift tonight as usual, when between the back-aches and leg cramps I realised...I'm tired of my job. I've been at it almost a year now, and I still love it, and it's still fun and interesting and easy work that I get paid well for (and the tips are INSANELY good, comparatively, and against all logic better than what I got in the cafe.)
I can stick it out for the rest of the summer, definitely, but beyond that--the monotony and consumer-driven focus of selling high-quality, (if overpriced,) espresso-based beverages is getting under my skin, and I'm eager for a change.
This is why I'm not going back to school next year. Not yet. God-willing, I've got my entire life ahead of me to get that degree, and it's not like I'm getting it to satisfy anyone other than myself, so what do I care who judges me on whether I take a year or two longer to get it?
I need to re-evaluate. Gain perspective. Possibly seek therapy.
In any case, I've the summer "off", to work for money.
Then--the fall. Heather, Scotland, a few weeks "vacation" and to see what I'd be getting myself into if I go with L'Arche.
The Philippines--PJM, the kids, the families, the school, the slums. I really don't know quite what to expect. Losing my inhibitions, my fear, (I know they're there;) gaining a respect for my fellow man, compassion, appreciation for all the advantages I was born into in Canada, to a good family, to know that I did nothing to deserve it. Given my premature birth, my initial struggle to survive, the invasive but necessary surgery with a 25% mortality rate--I HAVE to assume I was put on this earth, in this time, in my place, for a purpose. To believe anything else, I think, is to insult those millions of people struggling and suffering in underdeveloped nations and poverty and crime-stricken communities, to throw all I have back in the face of whatever power granted it to me, or worse, to believe that I did something to DESERVE it all. The stories I've heard from PJM, what these kids have been through--they deserve everything I have and so much more, and I want to try and share it with them, if I can, in the few months I'm there.
Home, again, I suppose, for Christmas. Mum and Dad want me with them, and PJM gets busy around that time of year, in any case, and volunteers would only get in the way.
In the new year--Ireland. Heather would be close by, if anything goes horribly awry. Perhaps I'll get to see a bit of Europe (put that EU citizenship to work!) and even if I don't, I'm always up for a life-changing experience, and that's what I hear about the work Heather does.
Next March, someone remind me, though, to re-apply to university!