Speaking of keeping journals. I have 5.5 years worth that I've been keeping since starting therapy, 2 sets of them actually one set of dream journals, the other just journals. The only writing I kept from when I was younger was my poetry and half a dozen or so stories. And here I will treat ya'll to one of my poems from early 1979 when I was a Junior in high school, the title is "Who Am I?" and was our first assignment in Creative Writing class (I still know it by heart lol):

I'm a flower swaying in a gentle breeze
a bird gliding over the silver seas
a silent night
an early morn,
a child of nature, too late born.

A person who needs very much to be free
to be around friends, but to always be me.
Just a loner
already known
always in between, and yet, alone.