There’s a version of the POMAR story that sounds like this: arrive overwhelmed , find quiet, get work done, leave recharged. Clean, logical, easy to pitch.
Marium’s version doesn’t go like that. She came for solitude and found a community that surprised her more than anything else could have. She came to think. And while she did plenty of that, she also signed new clients, learned a poem of hers was getting published, DJ-ed on an island, surfed, made friends she now texts from Toronto, and got into an obsessive negotiation with a bartender over a metal flask shaped like a Nokia phone.
She stayed 2.5 months at POMAR Na Praia. She’s a marketer and multi-disciplinary artist from Toronto, originally from Karachi, Pakistan. She’s also a DJ, a poet, a filmmaker, and a ukulele player. This is her story.
Meet Marium: “I See My Whole Life as a Dream Project”
Most people who burn out do it quietly. They stick it out until they can’t. Marium saw it coming and made a different call.
“Majority of my career has been spent working in a nine-to-five office structure, with creative projects tacked on in my free time,” she says. “This created a ton of friction and I found myself burning out of full-time work often.”
The friction was specific. “It’s hard to stay up till 2am playing a DJ set and then show up for a 9am meeting that should have been an email. Or to clock out of work at 5pm only to run to the theatre for rehearsals without having dinner. Or to sit through countless Zoom meetings when I’d rather be writing or playing my Ukulele.”
Two years ago she went self-employed. The shift gave her something she hadn’t had before: control over her own rhythm. Remote work came with it. And once the schedule was hers to shape, she started experimenting with how she lived — not just how she worked.
Coliving was one of those experiments. “I like experimenting with my lifestyle,” she says, “and was curious to see what impact it would have on me to be surrounded by other remote workers.”
Two Cultures, One Worldview: From Karachi to Toronto
When Marium talks about where she’s from, she doesn’t flatten it into a single answer. There are two homes, and she carries both.
“I grew up in Karachi, Pakistan and am currently living in Toronto, Canada,” she says. “Karachi is home, it’s where I grew up, it’s where all my childhood memories live. Toronto has become home, it’s where I’ve grown into an adult and built my life.”
She doesn’t treat those two places as opposites so much as lenses. “Living in two radically different cultures has given me a more balanced and expansive worldview. The collectivist culture of Pakistan has me longing for community, the individualist culture of Canada has me creating a life that prioritizes my whims.”
That pull between community and independence is at the core of why coliving made sense for her. And it turns out the Algarve had something to say about it, too.
Why Coliving, Why Now: “A Pattern Interrupt from My Usual Routine”
Marium’s reasons for trying coliving weren’t abstract. They were about energy.
“A change of scenery, pattern interrupt from my usual routine and new people with widely different ways of being has been the most energizing part about remote work and coliving,” she says.
She chose POMAR Na Praia specifically for its proximity to the beach. And the vibe matched what she was looking for: “I liked the sound of the vibe being less about ‘party’ and more about deep work and deep connections though we did get a fair bit of partying in,” she adds with a wink.
Getting there was about as frictionless as it gets. “Easy, no friction. One call with Claire and I booked my tickets.”
What She Expected vs. What She Found
Here’s where Marium’s story takes a turn that’s worth paying attention to especially if you’re a fellow introvert on the fence about coliving.
“I came hoping to find quiet time to work on myself, to think about my business and to find inspiration for my art,” she says. “I thought I’d spend a lot of time alone. I’m not a particularly social person.”
What actually happened was different. “Very quickly into my stay it became clear that the thing I was enjoying most, was the people.”
She describes her usual self at breakfast as “a very grumpy morning person. I don’t want to talk, I want to read my book and have my coffee in silence.” At POMAR Coliving, that changed. “I found myself having long morning chats by the pool, and even seeking them out.”
She said yes to almost every outing. She lingered in the kitchen making jokes with the people cooking (who fed her generously, since she readily admits she doesn’t cook). She had lazy afternoons with coffee and pastel de natas. And now, back in Toronto, she’s still texting her old housemates asking what’s happening back there.
“I believe life serves you exactly what you need,” she says. “I came with an idea of what that might be but the reality was very different, and I couldn’t be happier.”
What She Got Done: Clients Signed, Poems Published, an Island DJ Set
This is where it gets impressive because none of this was what she planned, and all of it happened anyway.
“I see my whole life as a dream project,” Marium says, “and indeed it has felt like a dream in the last few months.” Over the course of her stay at POMAR coliving, she signed new clients for her marketing work. She learned that one of her poems was being published. She DJ-ed on an island. She made progress on a short film project. She wrote songs.
None of this is a coincidence. It’s what happens when you remove friction from your life when your environment is aligned with who you are and what you’re building, when the people around you energize rather than drain you, and when you finally have enough space to let your different selves coexist instead of compete.
That’s the POMAR coliving effect, at its best. Not a productivity hack. A permission structure for your full self.
The Space: Two Rooms, Two Moods, 99% Na Praia
Marium stayed at POMAR Na Praia for the vast majority of her time “99% of my time was spent at Na Praia and I loved every bit of it.” She had two different rooms during her stay: one with a balcony and a gorgeous view, another with a terrace and direct access to the garden. The 1% of time she spent at POMAR Base also left an impression “absolutely gorgeous,” she says.
The setup suited both her work mode and her rest mode, though she’d point out the ergonomics could be improved. “I could have done with a more ergonomic work station,” she notes honestly — a useful piece of feedback for anyone who, like her, spends long hours writing, producing, or on client calls.
A Moment She’ll Remember: The Flask, the Bartender, and the Housemates Who Made It Happen
After a beach party, Marium and some housemates went to a cocktail bar in Faro. Her drink arrived in a metal flask shaped like an old mobile phone. “Being the obsessive weirdo that I am, I had to have it and begged the bartender to sell it to me. He wouldn’t.”
“I was devastated. I agonized over the loss of a cute trinket that was never mine to begin with for days. I complained to everyone in the house.”
A week later, on her last night at POMAR coliving, the group went back to that bar. At the end of the evening, her housemates told her: they had negotiated with the bartender. Tonight, she was going home with the flask. “In that moment I felt seen, heard, understood and cared for,” she says.
That’s not something you plan for. It’s something that only happens when you’ve actually become part of something when people have been paying attention, and they do the small, specific, thoughtful thing that shows it.
Connect with Marium
LinkedIn: Marium Masood
Music: Listen to her DJ set on SoundCloud
Ready to Find Out More About the POMAR Experience?
Marium’s story isn’t a template it’s a reminder that the best things about a stay often aren’t the ones you planned for. POMAR is a hybrid coliving space in the Algarve, built for remote workers, creatives, and entrepreneurs who want more than just a desk with a view. If her story resonates, we’d love to hear from you.
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