A generation of children whose parents died on 9/11 are now coming of age.

Nicholas Gorki, who is settling into another fall semester in college, is one of them.

He is part of a generation who will never know their parents because of the terror attacks on 9/11.

His father, Sebastian Gorki, was in the south Twin Tower where one of the planes hit on Sept. 11.

Nicholas is only alive because his mother, who was 7 weeks pregnant, escaped the North Tower.

"For me it's so distant, so foreign because I still don't think I can fully comprehend what happened that day, especially to my mother and my grandparents," he says.

Now approaching his 20th birthday, he is speaking publicly about his dad and was featured in the PBS documentary "Generation 9/11."

He shared with News 12 how his father's success as a bank vice president at 27 is shaping his future plans.

"It inspires me to become the best person I can be because that was his goal, he clearly wanted to advance himself in his career," he says.

There is one thing Nicholas hopes he can live to see in his lifetime that his father did not.

"My mom always tells me about how united we were as a nation after 9/11," he says. "I think this sense of unity is something we are very much lacking nowadays."

He says it shouldn't take a tragedy for Americans to come together.

Nicholas Gorki's family home in Rye Brook is among the properties hit hard by Ida.