Thanks everyone for your responses! I figured I would post on here now that I actually have a back-up plan. After considering all of the advice I have received from my mentors, family, and people on this site and talking over ideas with my boyfriend, we have decided on the following, if I don't get accepted this year:
We will move back to our home town and find an apartment. We will both register as substitute teachers. The city we are from has a major shortage of substitute teachers and both of my parents are teachers in the area, so we should be able to get steady work (outside of food service) this way. I will contact local universities and colleges to inquire about volunteer research opportunities. There is one lab in particular that would be ideal to volunteer in, as it fits very well with my research interests (there is no lab like this at my undergrad, so staying here would not help me). I also plan to audit some chemistry and bio classes to improve my hard science knowledge. In this time I should also publish my senior thesis, giving me my first authorship on a published empirical research paper. I will reapply next year, this time to many more schools, and will revise my SOP to be more program specific, as well as more specific in regards to my research interests and ideas. And of course, I will read, read, and read some more in my field to increase my knowledge base.
I feel prepared to enter into a phd program in my field and I couldnt be more excited to hear back from the schools I applied to, but I also know I have a lot to learn. I am so at peace with this back-up plan, I might cut down my application status/email checking to just once a day, haha.
Good luck everyone!