Whatt hahaha, I now get even more what you're talking about! Now I want to learn to have patience to a couple of bonsai trees. Let's see what I can find. I already have a bonsaish jade plant, one of those counts? I put one in the ground on my parents house like 5 or 7 yrs ago and now it looks like a midsize bonsai. I could try to put in in a pot now but I think it got too heavy! But the trunk looks exactly like you left this one lol. I always pictured one of those like this one. I already told you about the desert rose, and we have a couple here that as adult trees look gorgeous (well a couple of many, we have very beautiful trees in our venezuelan lands). Like this one and this one too!. I'll see if I can get seeds so I can start them from scratch! If no maybe from an early age so I can follow almost the same progress!
I think it's amazing to maintain for so many years a single tree, it's literally tutoring. Kudos to you, I'll try to follow your example to put more work into my garden, thank you! I know it's not easy to take the time to throw some intel like you have, but I seriously thank you for that! Cheers!!