(TLDR: Roleplay is integral to who I am as it has led my to find friends, love, and even find myself, and has helped me through some of the darkest times I've ever had to face)
I have been roleplaying since I was, geez, 11/12-ish? It all started on the forums of a 'Own pet wolves' website known as Wajas (Which I think is still running to this day!). I took my favourite wolf from my collection, aptly named 'Wolfsoul', and thrust them into a roleplay full of werewolves to explore their lives. At the time I didn't realize that it would spark what has become an integral hobby to me, nor did I realize it would lead to my online moniker for years to come. From this tiny roleplay spanned my own artwork, imaginings outside of the roleplay itself, make believe fun at an age where most would say I was too old for that.
From there I moved onto not just werewolves but supernatural creatures in general in a roleplay called 'The House Of Immortality'. My character collection grew, each one with different facets of myself thrown into them, each one exploring different sides of myself - the twisted, the childish, the magic-loving, even the side of me questioning my sexuality in later years (See my earlier answer to an ask). Through this one roleplay alone I made friends that I would know for years to come. We started as awkward teens and pre-teens and we have known each other long enough to see one get engaged. I've even visited some of these people in real life and shared stories with them that not many know.
At some point in between 'Awkward teens' and 'Holy fuck, some of us are getting engaged now', we lost contact for a bit, and from there I fled to a weird format of roleplaying, Facebook. It turned out not to be my cup of tea per se but I developed some characters from the previous roleplay, expanded on their lives, and also started exploring myself once more through a character who was particularly into kinks and BDSM. Though I didn't make many friends through the Facebook roleplay, not like The House Of Immortality, I did make one. She is responsible for my love of Halestorm and tends to go to their gigs across the country. At the last gig, we actually got to meet up. We don't talk often - we both suck at keeping in contact - but last month she sent me a message out of the blue congratulating me on my relationship and asked if they were treating me right.
After the Facebook roleplay, a few of The House Of Immortality reconnected briefly, and while we tried to get back into rping together and had fun in the brief time that we did, sadly adult life got in the way a bit too much... Actually... It was right around the time that my mum had a stroke, only a few weeks after being diagnosed with diabetes) that things died off there. After so many years, roleplaying had become my escapism, my coping mechanism for dealing with the world, and I was desperate to latch onto a different roleplay to help me run away from all of the stress and pain of it all... And then I found this quirky little Final Fantasy roleplaying. I was nervous about joining at first - everyone already seemed to know each other and were super close friends, I wasn't sure if I'd fit in - but then a certain Meminisse pulled me over to their corner and pretty much said in no certain terms 'Come here, this is where the cool nerds hang out!'. We plotted between our characters and laughed about their antics, we chatted about life outside the roleplay and all the shit I had been going through, naturally gravitating towards someone who could help me better understand my mum's situation but also a really friendly face in a time that I desperately needed one. And, then, well, after learning a bit about plurality, Aellae made their interest in me known and the rest is history! I'm still a part of that Final Fantasy and it has become such a joy in my life now.
So, to summarize a ridiculously long post, roleplay is an integral part of who I am. Some may think that it is a weird hobby to have at my age - hence do I avoid really talking about it in public - but without it I wouldn't have made so many friends that have changed my life for the better, I wouldn't have developed such a firm understand of who I am as a person and certainly wouldn't have pushed through the day-to-day stress and crappiness of life, let alone the days where tragedy has hit and thrown my life completely sideways. Heck, without roleplay I wouldn't have even met my girlfriend and have fallen in love! No, when I first started roleplaying I never thought it'd become this important to me, but now I am so grateful it has!