acceptance activism adult-education adult-humor adulthood adventure american-expat american-expatriate american-humor american-literature american-southwest american-west anecdotes arches-national-park arid arizona authorship autobiographical autobiography beauty bereavement colorado-plateau comedic-storytelling comedic-timing comedic-writing comedy comedy-of-errors comedy-writing coming-of-age communication conservation coping cultural cultural-commentary cultural-differences cultural-experiences cultural-misunderstandings cultural-observations culture culture-shock david-sedaris death desert desert-ecology desert-flora-and-fauna desert-landscape desert-landscapes desert-life desertification dysfunctional-families dysfunctional-family ecology education emotion emotional emotional-journey emotions entertaining entertainment environment environmental-activism environmental-ethics environmental-philosophy environmental-writing environmentalism essay-collection essays expat-life expatriate exploration family family-dynamics family-relationships foreign-language france french french-language funny grief grief-and-loss grief-journey grief-memoir grief-process grieving grieving-process growing-up healing hiking hope humor humor-writing humorist humorous humorous-anecdotes identity illness immigrant-experience introspection landscape landscapes language language-acquisition language-barrier language-barriers language-classes language-humor language-learning laugh-out-loud laughter learning life life-after-loss life-experiences linguistics literature loss love marriage meditation memoir memoir-literature memoir-writing memoirist memoirs memories memory mental-health misadventures miscommunication misfit misunderstandings moab mourning national-park national-parks natural-beauty naturalist nature nature-writing non-fiction nonfiction observational-humor outdoor outdoor-adventure outdoor-exploration outdoor-living outdoor-writing paris park-ranger personal-essays personal-experiences personal-growth personal-journey personal-narrative personal-reflection personal-stories personal-tragedy philosophical philosophy preservation psychology reflection reflections relationship relationships resilience sarcasm sarcastic satire satirical sedaris-family self-deprecating self-deprecating-humor self-discovery self-expression self-improvement self-reflection social-commentary solitaire solitude sorrow southwest southwest-literature southwest-united-states speech-therapy storytelling sustainability teaching tragedy trauma travel utah widowhood wilderness wildlife wit witty witty-observations writing writing-style