I have a secret to confess: I would give up cake for blogging. I mean it. I mean, obviously, I would eat an atrocious amount of pie to compensate, but the point is, I would give up cake.

And that’s saying a lot. Anyone who has met me for more than seven minutes knows: I REALLY like cake.

But you see, blogging has changed my life. And I’m not saying that just because there’s a contest about how blogging has changed my life.

I started thinking about what grandiose story I could use to illustrate my point. But while I have undertaken a small enterprise as a result of blogging, I have not yet started a company. While I’ve received a couple unsolicited marriage propositions, blogging has not yet done anything for my dating life, except perhaps scare a couple off who were afraid of becoming last week’s dinner date, next week’s blog fodder. There hasn’t been one single life-changing moment that I can pinpoint.

When I started blogging (in 1999 — no lie), it was a means of updating my other 11-year-old girlfriends on my daily going-ons. (You know, because we didn’t see each other for six hours, five day a week.) Then it developed into a tween diary, into which I poured my heart and soul: failed math grades, imagined brokenheartedness and all.

In 2008, I took blogging to a semiprofessional level. I say semiprofessional because to many a mentor’s dismay, I still write about cupcakes. However, I’ve tried to stop talking about rendezvouses in Tijuana, and sometimes when I really have something to say, I don’t even try to be funny. My IRL friends just think I religiously keep an online diary, but this is so much more than that.

So how has blogging changed my life, then?

Well for one, I have the days of my youth carefully documented from 1999 to 2008. I can tell you the exact gifts I received on my 14th birthday or draw you a line graph to illustrate my emotional state in correlation with the Likelihood of my Crush Asking Me to Prom. That I will be able to share with my grandkids exactly who I was at their age is a concept that still baffles me in those half-awake minutes before I fall asleep.

Having a blog means people reach out to me constantly — to say ‘I know exactly how you feel’ or ‘thank you for writing that post’ or ‘I totally disagree’ or ‘dang girl, you’s funny’ (real). It’s like putting a giant flowery doormat that says WELCOME! And then leaving your blinds open so that your neighbors know you like dancing to Britney at 1 a.m., that you scavenge the refrigerator for dessert on an hourly basis, that you update your resume on Friday nights, and that oftentimes you hang out with the Internet more than you do your best friend. Still, a couple of emails here and there from peepers, from people who are moved or changed or inspired by what I do — that’s not such a big deal, right?

But maybe it’s not one big thing that’s made my blogging ‘career’ worth it. Maybe it’s about the little things.

Because blogging has given me an outlet during the rough patches in life, from encounters with death to the obstacles in father-daughter relationships. At times I’ve made myself vulnerable by laying out my emotions and fears for the judgment of strangers. I’ve posted my professional goals out for public scrutiny, for the supporters to cheer me on and for the naysayers to scoff at my naive ambitions.

Thanks to this little corner of the internet, I’ve been able to keep in touch with people I’d have otherwise lost track of. I’ve become friends with some of the brightest, most fearless, most driven people I’ve met to date.

Blogging has both created and converged two of my greatest (inedible) passions in life: writing and social media. Not only has it served as confirmation that they are what I love to do most, it’s sharpened my writing and pushed me to constantly learn more about and engage in social media. It’s developed my voice and evolved the ebb-and-flow of my words. Blogging has helped me tap into my own head and my readers’ heads; there comes a point where I can feel the punchlines in my writing emerge as I type. I don’t know how to explain it. What I do know is that intuition wouldn’t be there otherwise.

Maybe this online journaling thing is about being able to read back on and reflect on my lifechanging New York summer. Maybe it’s about sharing everything I’ve learned in this crazy journey, whether that’s how to market your stuff online or my best resume tips — or just a little tongue-in-cheek life advice.

It takes a certain kind of person to blog very publicly, to be ‘that girl’ who ‘meets people on the internet.’ Sometimes the internet thinks I’m a bright, highly-motivated go-getter. Other times it thinks I’m just another cute Asian girl. When you blog, you figure out the merging of your personal and professional self — and then you own it. For me, blogging is about questioning myself all the way home. It’s about being able to say I’m all of the above and more. It’s about writing long-winded posts like these, feeling kind of weird about the hundred or so people who will read it, and posting it anyway.

Maybe it’s the accumulation of all of these little tiny factors — these factors that have made one big, bloggy impact in my last nine years. That have given me the audacity to take the road less traveled more often than not. That make me say I’m honestly a different person because I publish my thoughts to the internet two or three times a week.

I don’t keep “backup” blog posts or a list of topics. I don’t sit down knowing what I want to write. I just open the window… and a lot like life — what comes, comes. Sometimes it sucks. Sometimes it doesn’t. But it always teaches me a little more about myself and who I want to be.

At the end of the day, my blog is my confessional space, my resume, and my stomping ground. It’s my open door between me and the world — and I’m so damn glad I have it.

Editor's Note: This post was part of a contest in which Brazen Bloggers were asked to write about how blogging affected their lives. For a full recap and to read the rest of the submissions read this post.