Goddard College MFAW alumna Christine Kalafus: What happens when nothing happens has this practical, grown-up writer falling prey to childlike superstition. My jeans fit today with no evidence of muffin-top so clearly I will win Big Essay Contest! or My mother has called three times and I haven’t called her back; obviously Prominent Literary Magazines will say no. If my grown-up bargaining isn’t exactly like what I experienced as a kid, it feels unnervingly close. I am reminded that, whenever I wait for a subjective response, I’m in danger of handing someone else my self-esteem.