As someone who has been lucky enough to see different parts of the world and immerse myself in different cultures, I have learnt to value the importance of travel.

But what do we mean by travel? I assume most people think travel means hightailing it to London Gatwick or Heathrow, lugging a suitcase in tow or enduring a tedious and lengthy car journey but this isn’t necessarily what I mean by travel.

The dictionary definition states that to travel is to ‘make a journey, typically of some length’ but this alienates what some people may define as travel as not all journeys require an excessive amount of length.

Walking down the street counts as travel. Getting on a train to go somewhere counts as travel. And I’m sure that the trip to a local park or library counts as travel. My point is, travel shouldn’t be defined by distance. I’m sure that whenever we leave the house we encounter something new. Well, wouldn’t we do the same if we travelled abroad? Personally, I feel as if it is not necessarily the place that we travel to that defines travelling, it’s the journey itself.

I understand that not everyone is able to travel abroad but that still doesn’t mean that you cannot travel. We can still appreciate the environment around us without the need of a great expense. To conclude, anything can be a journey, it just depends on how we visualise it or how we spend that journey.

Mia Leo-Andoh, St Philomena's