Before I interviewed Dr. Shelley Savage, I typed up a tidy list of questions to pepper her with. However, when I got on the phone with her, I found myself saying, “Tell me your story.” She agreed and gave me the rundown of her life…

       Dr. Savage originally got her bachelor’s degree in mathematics. She married young at BYU and started teaching school while her husband finished up his degree in business. By the time her husband got his degree, they had two children. It seemed like they were all ready for her husband to get into the business world and her to stop teaching and start taking care of their kids, but then her husband shared a dream; his dream was to own his own business. And not a mom-and-pop nickel store – he wanted to own a clinic. “Shelley, you should be the doctor.” The now-Dr. Savage wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea, but it seemed so strange. But then again, she always had been good at math and science, and the more she thought and prayed and went to the temple about it, she realized that it was the right thing for her and her family. So she tried it out for a year; for one year she went to school, taking all the prerequisites that her bachelor’s degree hadn’t covered. She got excellent grades and a good enough score on the MCAT, and the trial year went well enough, so she took the plunge.

       They were blessed to be accepted to the U, allowing her husband to keep working as a police officer in Utah Valley while she went to school in Salt Lake. During the first two years, they worked out a schedule that allowed at least one parent to always be home. And her husband was great – he did laundry, cooked dinner, everything, allowing her to study after the kids went to bed. Not only did they have 4 small children after the first two years of school, but Dr. Savage started doing clinical rotations and could no longer be at home as much as she had been. Her husband – I was really surprised to hear this – quit his job in order to take care of their kids. When I asked her if that felt strange to her, she replied, “You know, it seems like it would be – people around us talked a little, but it never felt strange to either of us. And we always put family first.” He stayed home for the rest of medical school and her residency – 5 years. In the meantime, he wanted to polish his credentials, so he went to the U as well and got a healthcare certificate.

       By the time she finished her 3^rd year of residency, they had 5 kids and he had everything ready for her to open a clinic. At this same time, she was called to be the Young Women’s president, and he was called to be the president of the Young Men. They faithfully served in these callings for the next 4 years. She’s been practicing for 8 years now.

         Her husband is a great businessman, and their practice has expanded to include two other physicians, a physician’s assistant, and many nurses. The basement of the clinic is like a house, and has a kitchen and playroom. That’s where their kids spent their days – if they needed to have mom kiss an owie better, she just came downstairs. They ate lunch together there as a family, and once again they worked out their schedules so someone could be home whenever the kids were – her husband comes early and leaves early, getting home at the same time the kids do from school. She comes a little later, getting the kids ready and off to school in the morning, and then gets home a little after they do.

        To wrap up our conversation, I asked her what her advice for me would be. She told me two things:

#1 "To make it work, you really have to marry the right person." She said everyone laughs about this, but it's honestly the most key aspect of her life.

#2 "You have to really want to be a doctor."

       She also said it was hard, much harder than she or her husband ever expected. They had to work together, and they had to make a lot of sacrifices. But would she change her life now? No. And does she feel like she did the right thing? Absolutely.