Dec 06, 2016 10:26 AM EST By Jane Reed, UniversityHerald Reporter

Many envision an acting career that sparkles and shines. Celebrities are often the cause of all this daydreaming. The glitz and glamour are just some of the things that attract young students to pursue a career in acting.

But some young (and older) individuals pursue an acting career because it is an art. However, the certainty of having a bright and income-filled future is quite slim.

Here is one graduate from Rutgers University. Her name is Megan Farley and she studied theater at Rutgers. She wanted to become an actress and an acting career after college is something she is looking forward to. However, she was not prepared for a not-so-easy life, cites Phindie. It was the harshness of the real world she did not expect.

According to Megan, she was sheltered in college. She recalls getting all the parts she wanted because it was quite a small theater community. She graduated Rutgers University last year (2015) and has struggled to find acting gigs to fill her acting career.

Now, she is working full-time as a substitute teacher so she can have her daily bread and butter. But she admits that she is living with her parents. Megan is thinking about getting a second job to pay for her head shots and expenses when she wants to audition for a role.

Megan says it is a hard and vicious cycle. But she is not the only one that is experiencing this type of hardship. In a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, she is one out of the many actors who are trying to pursue an acting career but take in part time jobs. According to the report, one out of three actors worked part time in 2014 alone.

Because of this, men and women looking to pursue a career in acting face long periods of unemployment or multiple missed opportunities. But the U.S. Department of Labor indicates that a few actors are able to get high paying jobs. For the rest, they are either unemployed or get paid low. But despite this, the DOL reports that they still find their work rewarding because an acting career is their profession and passion.

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