Growing up in Norfolk has been a great eye opener for me; until the age of 11 I had lived in South-East London.

Moving from an extremely busy area where all of my friends were, to a place where I knew nobody was very daunting.

As soon as my family moved to Norfolk, I started to realise the differences in the cultures, the way of speaking and the amount of people. Even though moving to a new school was quite terrifying, I soon made friends and realised the similarities between me and everyone else in my school. Everyone was very welcoming and I settled in right away.

Despite still missing people in London, I have grown to realise the freedom I have here. In London the most exciting place to go was round to the local park. My parents were very protective and I was not allowed to venture too far by myself. Being in Norfolk, I can just walk down to the beach with friends, go on boats trips around the broads and explore my surroundings. I feel safer.

The fact there are less buildings and people make my next few years even more adventurous, knowing that I can go skating, out on bikes or even just on a dog walk makes me feel as if I am expressing myself more. Rather than just an average teenager growing up in busy London.

Taylor Ball, 12, from Gorleston

Future Voices is a section of the EDP that is written by young people. We recently recruited a new group of young people to form the editorial team and as part of their application they had to answer this question: What is the best thing about growing up in Norfolk? This is one of the winning articles.