[PJ]

Make up some excuse as to why you have to be away from work for 2-3 weeks.

I assume you're still living at home.. so your worst case scenario is.. you get fired, you take your trip, you come back and find another job and live at home.. which is what you're already doing.

Excuse me if I'm being presumptuous, but it doesn't seem like you're happy with your routine. If you're not happy now, an extra $5-10 an hour sometime down the road when you're fully licensed isn't going to make you any happier. Trust me. I've been there. As an engineer, I doubled my pay, and still don't feel any more fulfillment at a job I spend 40 hours a week at.

Might be time for you to take that trip and go back to school.