What if?

I've been thinking about the future recently and what I would like to do in life. So far I've come up with... well I don't really know, but what I do know is I'd like to have crack at some research to see if it's for me. However having spoken to a few friends at least 4 of us definitely want to continue on to get a Ph.D. and a couple more are umm'ing & arr'ing.

With only 5 places at the Uni and competition from sources outside the uni. It's not looking to good for me. So I'm going to apply to other Uni's too but what if I don't get a place anywhere. Well I guess that means I've gotta go out into the real world and find a job. But like I said before I don't know what I want to do short of astro/physics research.

I'm sure jobs at an observatory would be just as hard if not harder to find than a postgrad place, so that's a dead end. On to my next idea, teaching? I don't think I'd want to teach not below a university level. Just because at uni the person wants to be there (well in most cases) and the stuff is generally more interesting, generally.

So that means I'm most likely going to have to venture out in to the big wide world, do some job that is monotonous that I would hate or I could follow the lead of Garrett Lisi, abandon technology and go live on an island in a vw caravanette, if only. I don't think I'm quite cut out for that unfortunately, as cool as that life style sounds.