Getting Published

Now that I think about it, I've been writing ever since I can remember. I started with my elementary school's newspaper, local writing contests and just drabbles for myself. The whole fanfiction thing started about fifteen years ago, when I was a silly teenager with crushes on celebrities that I would never even meet, and here this genre was, ready to give me what I needed.

I've had a lot of jobs and right now I'm actually content with being a flight attendant but my dream really is to be an author. I've got the stories I wanna tell. But I have no idea how it works. How does the publishing industry work? How can one get published nowadays? Back in the day, you'd send your manuscript to a publisher and wait (waaaaaait) until you heard from them, but does that still work in 2019? Is there even a market for what I provide (aka short stories revolving around fantasy)? How would I get into that world while keeping my day job - at least until my writing career takes off?

So many questions, so little idea on how to get answers lol