Ed often wonders if he'll ever grow old. Not grow up (either figuratively or physically); he's long ago resigned himself to the fact that he's short, and hardly anyone calls him a child anymore. No, Ed wonders if he'll grow old. If he'll live to grow old.
Will his hair turn white? Will it fall out? Will he be full of wrinkles and have arthritis? Will his alchemy – this frightens him most of all – will he lose his alchemy as he grows old? Will he lose his memory? Forget everything?
Sometimes Ed thinks it might be better to die young.
One day when Ed was thirteen, Mustang had advised him to be more respectful. Ed retorted that he'd never learned to respect authority figures. Mustang's reply to that was "You learn something new every day."
Ed took that saying to heart. He may not have learned to respect authority figures, but he did try to learn something new every day. He actually kept a small journal every year – the kind with the date printed on the individual pages, one for each day – and diligently recorded one new thing he learned every day.
He doesn't write anymore, but he's still learning.
