Member-only story
About Me: Ann NSM
Thank you for dropping by. So nice to meet you!
Welcome! This is me, the person in the picture above.
My name is Natassa Ann Sta (pronounced Santa) Maria. Here on Medium, I have used my second name, Ann as my “writer name”. (Non-members can read the whole article here).
The person in the photo above is a wife, mother, former career person, now full-time homemaker. I am a Malaysian of mixed-Portuguese descent…although the “mix” happened centuries ago…(another long story for another day). I was born and raised in a town called Melaka (Malay for Malacca) but now reside in the capital, Kuala Lumpur.
Although I graduated with a Chemical Engineering degree, and later a degree in Politics and International Relations, my path led me to humanitarian work, where I worked for UNHCR in Kuala Lumpur for some 17 years.
Aside from this, I have also been blessed to raise a son who is on the spectrum, gifted and high-functioning. I have two younger, beautiful daughters and a loving and supportive spouse.
Before discovering Medium in August 2023, I was grappling with burn out from 7 years of vicarious trauma, listening to traumatic, first-hand accounts of asylum-seekers applying for refugee status under the UNHCR mandate. I was also recovering from my own traumatic episode working under a difficult…
