A victor, not a victim

One day at a time

Ireland was sent to Craig Hospital for inpatient rehab and stayed for months, not gaining his freedom again until, ironically, Fourth of July. He continued to work as an outpatient until that November, for a total of seven months of grueling therapy designed to re-teach him how to walk, talk, read and write.

The physical therapy was easiest, Ireland says, thanks to his years of athletics. "I was used to hard work," he says. "I grew up playing sports, with practices where you run for three hours straight."

The mental work, however, was another story. Friends and family would ask him questions, and Ireland would answer them — except what came out of his mouth often made no sense, like a recitation of something that had come over the hospital PA system earlier. Rehab meant going back to the frustrating work of tracing letters and reciting the alphabet. "It was like elementary school again," Ireland says.

Despite the setbacks, Ireland returned to Columbine in time for his senior year and not only graduated on time, but was also valedictorian of his class. From there, he went on to college at Colorado State University, where he studied business finance and graduated magna cum laude. He even gave the commencement address at his business school graduation.

Through all of the obstacles and achievements, Ireland says he learned invaluable lessons — about perseverance, hard work and just living. He's come to believe that, "you have the ability to live your life on a daily basis, to wake up and choose whether to be a victor or a victim," he says. "Those of us who choose to be victors can achieve the goals we set out for ourselves."

It's a message he's gone on to convey to strangers, through public speaking and media appearances, as well as to his own family. Touched by her brother's recovery, Ireland's sister Maggie went on to study physical therapy and now helps rehabilitate patients at Craig Hospital.

So it was no surprise, then, that when it came time to choose a career, Ireland looked for one that would allow him to give back even more — and that's how, while looking for an internship at a college job fair, he stumbled upon Northwestern Mutual. The company's local recruiter sold him on a job helping clients achieve their financial goals; the job itself sold Ireland on a career with Northwestern Mutual.

"I didn't really know what I wanted to do then," he says. "I just knew I needed an internship and that I wanted to have a good experience. But as soon as I got a taste of what this career is like, I really enjoyed it. The people, the culture, the relationships — that's what really drew me back to be a full-time financial representative."

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After his college graduation in 2004, Ireland worked in Northwestern Mutual's south Denver office until 2009, when he was tapped to lead the company's new satellite office in Broomfield, a suburb just north of Denver. Theodore, the managing partner with Northwestern Mutual's Denver branch, said the choice was an obvious one.

"He's a good role model, both as a representative and a citizen," Theodore says. "He's resilient, very determined, caring and humble. I think, through his life experiences, he's just shown that he rises to every challenge."

Theodore points to the fact that, when he and his team interviewed Ireland for the intern position, he didn't tell them right away that he was a Columbine survivor.

"It came out during the interview process," Theodore says. "You just know when you shake Patrick's hand that he shakes a little differently. He has a little bit of a limp, so you know there's something there. But the thing about Patrick is that he doesn't lead with that. He didn't really let the Columbine shootings define him. He was more determined to show that they wouldn't define him."

Indeed, in Ireland's Broomfield office, it's hard to find any trace of Columbine. There are no pictures of him with the celebrities — Shania Twain, Aerosmith — who visited his hospital bed. No walls of newspaper clippings. His most noticeable decorations are family pictures. A framed snapshot commemorating his first Father's Day stands in a prominent position on his desk.

It's not that Ireland tries to hide his history with Columbine. Clients sometimes recognize him — though it's happening less and less as time passes, he says — and he has no qualms about telling them about his experience. "I'm more than happy to share my story with them," he says. "I'm learning their story and about them, so it helps if they know about me. I think it adds a level of depth to the relationship."

In fact, one of Ireland's clients happens to be the ambulance driver that sped him to the hospital back in 1999. "That team helped save my life, and in the business I'm in now, I'm able to help his family out," Ireland says.

But life goes on, and Ireland has lots of other things on his mind these days. In Broomfield, he has more than 500 clients to take care of and oversees 16 financial representatives as well as about a dozen interns at any given time. "You have to learn to juggle all the new things and all the directions you're being tugged," Ireland says of running an office at such a young age. "It's about trying to balance work, and your clients and your personal life."

Luke Sturges, a wealth management advisor in the Broomfield office and a close friend who has climbed the Northwestern Mutual ladder with Ireland over the years, says Ireland's determination is constantly present.

"The ups and down and daily challenges of this career, he's always stayed focused on the end game," he says. Sturges thinks some of that comes from Ireland's experience with Columbine, but he says it's also because "we both want to be here. This isn't just a job to us."

Ireland isn't so busy that he's missed the recent tragedies at Aurora and Newtown, though. As a husband — to college sweetheart Kacie — and a father to a three-year-old girl, he says he now sees Columbine and the similar shootings that have followed through a whole other lens. "As a father, you view it from a totally different perspective," he says. "It's just a totally different experience."

Ireland likes to keep his views on gun rights and the other policy issues being hotly debated following Newtown to himself, but he is vocal about one thing: "In my mind, I believe the world is still good at heart," he says. "And that evil will not win."

Watching Patrick Ireland, that once-tragic boy in the window, raise a family and build a successful career, it's a worldview that's easy to believe.

For more from and about Patrick Ireland, watch the following videos:

• LifeHealthPro Q&A with Patrick Ireland
• CNN Defining Moments: Patrick Ireland