In the piece “How close are you to your parents”, Barry Sanders focuses on the close relationship he has with his parents, shows why he has a close bond with them, and gives detail on how he is comfortable with his parents and how he can be transparent with them. 

   The story begins with how much he feels connected to his parents to show how he feels about the relationship. He uses a lot of cause and effect examples to emphasize that he can be open to his parents whenever he needs to have a talk with them. For example, in his first example about him having something going on in school, he explains that he had a problem (cause) and how him having that good relationship was able to talk about it (effect). 

  In his second example, he illustrates that he was able to tell his parents about the item he broke and not get away with it. That example influences his writing because breaking things can be a big deal, especially if it is an expensive piece of material. 

   In conclusion, Barry wrote this story to show that having a bond with parents or family in general can be something special.

The author's story was relatable because I trust my parents and is something that not everyone gets to have with their parents. A phrase I like from the author was "I was able to tell them instead of them finding by themselves." because not every son/daughter gets to trust on their parents, and i'm glad I am one of the daughters to trust on my parents. 

--Jaqueline Barrera

I liked how it started saying, How he is already close to his parents, and how his showing examples about and giving detail like, When he broke something he would rather tell them instead of his parents found out. The essay is short but is meaningful. I think he could've give more examples but he was on point.

--Fernando Vera