Coming Home: Claiming My Identity

I didn’t know at the time, but when I created the Travelle name, it was as if I was creating the person I wanted to be. A creative independent woman who carved this space to express so many interests from photography to style to traveling the world and painting. As time went on I explored all of these interests. She became my alter ego and this figure I looked up to. At the same time, I was able to go through self discovery, heal from past wounds, and reawaken my creative energy. Travelle has come full circle. While I’ve recently realized that I have fully become her and time to let go of the name, I’d like to go through her evolution.

2013

While in grad school, I had the opportunity to study in China which I was beyond excited about. It was a time I will never forget and one I still cherish in my memory and will for the rest of my life. I documented the culture, the architecture, and the people through photography and sketching. I remember buying a sort of treasure box and kept all things related to that experience and I painted the top with the word “Travelle.” After this trip, Travelle was born because that’s when I knew I fell in love with traveling, photography and fashion. So I opened a blog and became an influencer (hah) documenting trends. Shout out to my sister for being my personal photographer. Love you boo! What excited me the most was that it was something new for me to learn and navigate. My mindset was and still is “well if they can do it, why can’t I.”

2014-2015

I got really into fashion and studying what being an influencer really was. I soon realized it wasn’t for me. But I did love the process of photography still. Personally I came to realize that it was such a waste to keep buying clothes and marketing them. I’m more of a minimalist and styled the clothes that I owned and soon veered off the fashion blogging days. I wasn’t super passionate about it, however, I did enjoy styling the clothes I already owned and still find joy doing that. 

From left to right. TOP: Bogota, Colombia | Buenos Aires, Argentina | Cliffs of Moher, Ireland BOTTOM: Faro, Portugal | Paris, France | Vienna, Austria

2016-2021

During this time, I became more intrigued with traveling to new places. I started solo traveling in 2016 and it’s been such an amazing journey. I had complete freedom to discover and learn about myself and I’m so grateful for the Time - the only luxury in life. Adventure and travel is in my blood and the only thing that kept me exploring was facing my fears. I learned that with every new exciting journey, fear always came knocking at my door begging me to entertain it. While of course it did creep in a few times naturally, I still went ahead with my plans. I visited many many countries and pushed my boundaries of feeling uncomfortable over and over again.

I started from staying in a country for 3 days to staying for a few months. It’s not an easy thing to do for someone who’s very close to her family. While my parents thought I was crazy especially for a female to travel alone (how dare I hah), that only fueled my desire to prove them wrong. However, the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Many might know that my family and I migrated from Albania in search for a better life when I was 10 years old and I recall that time period being very challenging for me to adjust learning a new culture as well as a new language. Also, I recall after a moment of incredible frustration vowing never to travel or move again because it was such a disruptive experience. Surely being an immigrant is never an easy thing. In a way, aiming to have these travel experiences as an adult was merely me trying to heal the little Laerta who vowed never to travel/move again, and to tell her that it’s okay to feel uncomfortable and scared.

2022 + onward

It is with great pleasure that I feel like I came home to myself this year. What does that mean exactly? It means after all the search, unlearning and relearning and creative experimentations (granted there will be more experimenting because what kind of an artist would I be), I am fully HERE. Trav-elle, the alter ego who I wanted to be was in me all along. I was always her, but I just needed to build up the confidence to be her. I am Laerta Premto.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned through this journey is that becoming a beginner at something is very challenging, however, it also serves as an opportunity for expansion in life. Making that mindset shift takes time and it was only this year after years and years that it finally clicked with me. So instead of looking at the negative, focus your attention at the great possibilities something new might bring you. The same attitude I’ve approached traveling is how I approach anything else in life going forward - as The Greatest Adventure. Let’s embark on new possibilities with an open heart!

xo,

Laerta