"IF" by Lucy Maud Montgomery

"I read an article recently on "The If's of History."

After it I sat and thought of the "ifs" of my own life.

If mother had not died.
If Uncle John Campbells had been living next to us instead
  of Uncle John Macneill.
If I could have stayed out west.
If my application for the Lower Bedeque school which I sent
  in when I left P.W.C. had been accepted.
If I had been able to take an Arts course.
If Edwin Simpson had been a man I could love.
If Anne of Green Gables had been accepted as soon as it was written.

Probably any of these "ifs" would have changed my life beyond recognition. But there are no "ifs' in predestination--in which I have come to believe absolutely. We walk our appointed ways."

The Selected Journals of LM Montgomery - Journal IV, p. 235, Rubio & Waterston