Consider the following two sentences:
- Attending X gave me a sense of appreciation for Y.
- By attending X, I acquired an appreciation for Y.
I'm not quite sure what's more appropriate to use. From experience, sentence #2 sounds more direct. However, because the verb is "attending," it seems more natural to use #1.
(Wasn't sure how to properly set the title for this post. Please change if someone comes up with a more apt title.)
Best Answer
In Sentence 1, the subject is Attending X (not me), and the verb is gave (not attending).
Your first sentence is an example of a sentence with a gerund phrase as a subject. Wikipedia gives these examples:
In Sentence 2, the subject is I and the verb is acquired, and attending X is a prepositional object.
In short, you can say it either way without fear of violating any grammatical rules.
I think your question title is fine – not because it’s accurate (it isn’t), but because it reveals the source of your misunderstanding.