This is a tough question. NOLA is a weird legal market and employment market generally. If you're happy to stay in LA (especially NOLA), sounds good. If not, you'd better be at the very, very top of the class to be able to get out of the area.
Plenty of us here have done exactly what you're planning. A buddy of mine took the LSAT last fall, was accepted to his top school, then delayed further to intern.
Taking another year or two off should be fine.
@Alejandro and @"Cant Get Right" beat me to it! You'll do great between now and Sept hopefully. You seem to have things in common with a few of us already---You met your fellow Mississippian and now you've met a fellow history major haha :)