Hope is not a fallacy, but determination and endurance is required.
Cherry picker
Keep stacking shelves if it pays the bills ! I worked many low paid jobs in a previous recession from welding Ford cars to postman. One US company in the UK gave just 5 days leave a year - I took unpaid leave to get some flight training in. Almost 4 years looking for better jobs - and they did eventually come after many 100s of CVs. This was back in the day when a CPL needed 700h minimum time.
Then National to JAR licence changes meant I missed the ATPL by about 50 night hours and didn't get a JAR one for another 7 years (9/11, SARS, requirement for JAR25 and 500h Multi Crew)! Since then I've been paid pretty well to fly many machines from puddle jumpers, through TPs to Jets.
If you love flying you may have to put ambitions on hold for a while but they don't have to die for the sake of a LoCo CEOs P2F bonus!