Maya
Maya is what you’d call a third culture kid. Wikipedia best sums it up by describing 3CK’s as:
“someone who, as a child, has spent a significant period of time in one or more culture(s) other than his or her own, thus integrating elements of those cultures and their own birth culture, into a third culture.”
She was conceived 30 years ago in Russia, probably during some horrible winter storm in February and birthed likely during a tropical storm in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia 9 months later.
Her parents were diplomats with the Malaysian Embassy which resulted in a childhood spent in 6 countries on 3 different continents at 3 different elementary schools, 1 middle school and 2 different high schools. She ultimately completed University where she received a Bachelors degree in Mass Communication.
Her first professional job out of University was as a Communications Assistant at the Aviation Safety Alliance in Washington D.C. They hired her for her profriency in computers and put her in charge of revamping and updating the company’s website. At the same time, she acted as the key individual that liaised with internal corporate communications and mediated between aviation experts and the media.
After most of her life abroad, she moved back to her motherland of Malaysia in 2003 where she ditched the corporate world and pursued her love for writing, music and everything in between.