Five years ago today, various lives changed. Another tragic event was added to U.S. history and our nation suffered another tragedy. Student's lives were taken from their family, friends, teachers, and peers.

This time it wasn't a terrorist attack, but another school shooting. With today marking five years since Sandy Hook, here's a look back at where I was that day as our nation remembers one of the deadliest schools shootings in history.

It was my freshman year of high school. Life was great for me. I was at an all-time high. School was going well, the weather was nice out, winter break was in a week, and it was one of the eight nights of Hannukkah. It was Friday. the week concluded. My family and I were getting ready to have everyone at our house to celebrate Hannukkah. There was only one week left until winter break. Everyone was getting into the holiday spirit.

There was also a basketball game that night. My school, Robbinsville High School, was taking on one of our rivals that day. I'll never forget, my friend Loren and I were talking about hanging out. We were planning on meeting at one of the games to see her brother play.

Unfortunately, the game wasn't until later however, there was time to spare. As a freshman, living in a community where there's a road that connects both the high school and middle school, the notorious thing to do after classes concluded was visiting your middle school teachers. Catch up with them and see how they're doing. So I took a walk over there.

Sadly the weather wasn't as warm as I wished, but it was still pretty nice out. When I arrived at the school, I had to wait outside. While waiting, to keep myself occupied, I went on Facebook.

Momentarily, I learned about the shooting from an article published by a local news affiliate. At first, I thought it was something small and that wouldn't be highly spoken about. I thought it was just a local story that would only impact those residing in Newtown Connecticut.

Boy, was I mistaken. Time flew, and I saw my old teachers. After around an hour of chatting with them, I walked back to the high school to watch some basketball. Although I couldn't watch the varsity team play, I still saw the JV team in action. I didn't think about the tragedy until after the basketball game when my father picked me up and asked me if I heard what transpired.

He turned up the radio so we can both listen to the news. It then hit me that the shooting wasn't a small incident. It was a tragedy. The story was everywhere. All over the news, internet, social media, etc. People scattered across the tri-state were already recovering from Super Storm Sandy that left disaster and incredulity left and right. Now they had to listen to this.

Like everyone else in the nation, my family and I were in disbelief. We couldn't fathom what we were hearing. Sadly, December 14th, 2012 became another tragic historical day. One that remains depressing and unforgotten.