Hola! Bonjour! Guten Tag! Hey hey! I’m Ashlei Elise. I’m a Southern lady from the beautiful state of North Carolina.

I am a multi-passionate millennial who loves to read and write, jam out to a wide variety of music, dance salsa into the midnight hours, try new foods and dabble in photography. I am awfully great at karaoke, obsessed with languages and cultures, and have a thirst to explore the world.

Although recently married at the start of 2019, the past few years have been extremely difficult and ultimately — just shy of three years — my marriage was at a point of no return. Divorce was the final decision and I wish that it could have been as simply as that. But, that’s not life, is it?.

The state of NC requires a full year of legal separation before divorce can be filed and finalized.

With the support of my family and close friends, I made the decision to not hide within my comfort bubble — neglecting the need to fully heal — but instead chose to take a massive leap of faith, move across the world and try something I’ve always dreamed of: traveling the world and working remotely.

I start my journey of Lost in Separation at the start of December 2021. I’m nervous, excited, hurting and healing; I can’t wait to look back and see where this takes me.

Phew! Not sure if I have enough room here to share all of my dreams; but then again, I’m not sure if I’m ready to just yet! :)

…but I am willing to share a few that inspired me to take on this crazy adventure.

In 2013 I was introduced to the idea of remote living around the world. Working and traveling each month to a different country. Since then I had made it my goal — before life got too complicated — to do just that.

I had nearly forgotten about that dream, but then in 2020 the world pandemic — and regrettable the state of my marriage — renewed that dream. Since I had no children, no mortgage, a flexible career, minimum debt and a healthy savings; I realized, I could actually do this!

The world is a very big place. I wish that I could travel and spend time in every single country. But alas, despite us approaching 2022 in just a few weeks, the world is still in the grips of covid. Instead I will focus on a handful of European countries over the next year and create my very own “Eat, Pray, Love” remote living experience.

I will be traveling around the world starting December 2021 through July 2022. My goal is to have a main basecamp “home” in a different country each month, and occasionally travel to surrounding countries on the weekend.

As I travel, my goals are to accomplish the following:

Heal and grow from the trauma of my marriage through sharing my truth.

Intentional focus on loving and caring for myself again.

Celibacy (but no, like really lol).

Finish writing my first novel (and hopefully outline more).

Visit at least new 10 countries.

I am passionate about creating.

By day, I work as the Marketing Director over 100+ employees up and down the East Coast within the student housing industry for nearly 15 multi-million-dollar assets.

I specialize in developing the vision for our sales campaigns, social platforms and branding across the company. In my ten years in the field I’ve developed training programs, pushed the boundaries in digital and guerrilla marketing, and found a knack for sales strategies that provide optimal success.

By night, I am taking my obsession with organization and combining it with my soft yet strong aesthetics to create my very own line of stationery products, illustrations and more called by Ashlei Elise (aka BAE). Additionally, it has always been a goal of mine to become a Young Adult fiction author. I have so many stories in my head, and I am finally committing myself to putting my pen to the paper in 2022.

As I take on Lost in Separation — my vlog series about this year of legal separation before my divorce is finalized — I will be learning how to balance my day vs night jobs; giving grace, space and time to each area of passion in my life.