How do I move forward with a crappy job history? The only path forward I see is to screw everything and become a monk.

So I have a really crappy job history that I don't know how to move forward with. Any advice, feedback or comments is appreciated. Well, I know one path forward, but let me describe the situation a bit more first.

I am 25 and have a BA in English Lit., and aside from this I have a variety of random jobs. I worked as a busboy at a banquet hall for most of high school and university, and in that time had a volunteer gig in the office of a camp one summer, a mostly useless internship and little else. After Uni, I went treeplanting, worked in a warehouse and worked in administration for a government agency for a few months before leaving to teach English as a Second Language. Over a year, I taught in two countries (leaving the first one because it didn't go well and then having a bad time in the second place), and came back a year later to a job at Menchies, then I became a barista while waiting to go back to university. Then I went back to school to become a teacher here at home but dropped out of the program after a semester. I had wanted to get into teaching because I wasn't sure what else to do but the program confirmed it's not for me. Anyway, I got a job in the office of my alma matter and had it for eight months until I was laid off. That was February.

So for context, I put a lot of work into my studies in high school - working on homework all the time and having little free time (unlike most people). I really worked hard and had no life. Then I did the same thing in university. I didn't spend much time with a social life or working, and so you can imagine how depressed I became at the end of my university degree - when I realized that my efforts were worthless. Experience is king, and I had little of it, and felt like it was all hopeless.

So, the day after I was laid off, I thought about this old, off-and-on interest I have had in being a monk, and I thought about a particular community that attracts me. So I said screw it, and I left the country for two and a half months. I won't go into too much detail, but it was the right choice, though it was arguably escapist in nature. I want to go back in the Fall so I can continue discerning whether becoming a monk is the right choice for me. It sounds pretty appealing, honestly.

I can go back in the Fall but have to at least wait and look for work until then. Of course, if I go back it is arguably still partially a way of escaping my difficult and negative employment prospects but I have other good reasons to want to go. Anyway, whether or not the idea of becoming a monk is worthwhile is beside the point of this post. I just wonder what else there is for me, and I wonder how I can move forward with a difficult job history.

I have a pretty useless B.A. in English Literature degree and am 25 with little experience.

No, my career prospects are not hopeless. They're just difficult. It doesn't help that I moved around between work so much. I'm not even sure whether to include all my work in my resume and today I actually cut it all out and shrunk my resume to one page, with just my service industry experience.

Anyway, I have been looking for food industry jobs and for barista positions in particular and though I only started a few days ago I feel cynical about getting into the industry.

I don't know how I can move forward with any kind of normal career. My past work history haunts me.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

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