I can't believe it's been 20 years already. Two decades since the deadly terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. That day changed the lives of many people, not just in the United States, but across the globe. And I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news.

It started out like every other day. I woke up in my bedroom and was trying to muster up enough energy to go to class. My first semester of college at Arizona State University just began that August, so it was a fresh experience for me. Suddenly, my mom bursts through the door.

"Gabe, a plane crashed into the World Trade Center," she exclaimed as she turned on the small TV in my room.

The screen flickered on to the special report airing on the Today Show. An image of one of the Trade Center buildings appeared and I could see smoke billowing from the side of it. I couldn't fathom what I was seeing. Then a black blur whizzed across the screen and an explosion occurred on the other tower.

"Was that a plane," mom asked clutching her hand over her mouth.

"I think so," I replied.

We sat there in my bedroom for what seemed like an eternity as we watched the events unfold that morning. While the coverage continued, my dad helped me get ready to go to class. Once I was ready, we went to the living room to continue watching the special report.

For the rest of the morning, we sat there stunned by what we were seeing transpire on the east coast. When it came time to head to campus, we didn't really know what to do. But reluctantly, we decided to go to class.

Once we arrived on campus, there was an eerie calm around. There wasn’t a crowd of kids rushing to class or guys trying to get you to sign up for another credit card. There were only a few people walking about.

As I entered my class at Neeb Hall, there were only a few students in the seats. Most of them decided to skip class, and it was not a bad idea. My professor didn’t talk about classwork, instead, we talked about the attacks before letting us leave early.

Since there were a couple of hours before my next class, I went to the Memorial Union for lunch. As I was eating downstairs, a large group of students was huddled around the TV in the lounge listening to the latest developments. As you could imagine there wasn’t much school work being done that day.

Every person in the room hung on the anchor’s every word as more information was shared throughout the day. New images from the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the United 93 crash site brought many people to tears, me included.

The world we knew was gone, and many things would never be the same.

For the rest of the day, we just spent time hopping from class to class, talking about what happened that day. Many of the questions we had wouldn’t get answers for weeks and months.

The whole day was a surreal experience that will be stuck in the corner of my mind for as long as I will remember. It was a part of history that changed the landscape both in the U.S. and abroad.

Sept. 11, 2001 will forever be a dark day in our history, but we will always honor those souls who perished that day and never forget.