I'm 25. I started my first novel at 16 and have been pounding the pavement query wise since 18, when I got an encouraging rejection from Exquisite Corpse, which 7 years later was the first place I got a story into print. If it weren't for the fact that I can't get a day job to save my life, I'd have been caught up in trying to do that, too, but instead my girlfriend and I have had to gypsy around on just faith, love and the occasional nod of encouragement. It's not going to get easy, but it will get easiER. You should check out
http://www.ralan.com. It's a bazaar of genre markets, big, medium and small that you might find a niche at. Also, don't be afraid of small presses. Everybody wants the advance, but the fact is that an advance is only borrowing money from your future self anyway. Royalties are slow, but they're money and they get you noticed.