Old journals are embarrassing in the best way. They prove you changed.

Cringing at your own old writing is a receipt. The embarrassment comes from the distance between then and now, which means that distance is real and measurable, and that is the one thing memory cannot give you. The earlier version was not stupid, only earlier, working with what they had. Keeping the evidence is kinder than destroying it, even when it is uncomfortable to read.

Do not throw them out. Read a few pages this week and find one thing that has changed and one worry that turned out not to matter. Then write something today, badly, so a year from now you have another one.