Very well put! The answer to this question is essential when dealing with Life before Life, Life after Death issue.

When we say "there is no Life before Life", we are putting the "I am" into the world of "it", the world of matter and energy. The human body would be an amount of various elements, combined into molecules, combined into an organism. If we say we are an amount of "it" then we must explain how organic matter can say and know "I am", how "it" can have a will.

When we deny that we are a "it", come the many attempts to explain in different ways what I am. Concepts as "the soul", something that would survive death, may arise. Yet, the definition of soul get very vague here... That's where we find some variances...