Thread by @NBCNews

"Just keep swimming.”

For the past year, Alexandra Greenwald has scribbled this on her hand before gymnastics competitions, as a reminder of her best friend, Nick Dworet, a competitive swimmer who was killed in the Parkland mass shooting last year. nbcnews.to/2SB5J2L (1/6)

It has been a year of firsts for Parkland.

The first birthdays missed. The first holidays without their loved ones.

Now, one more first approaches: the first anniversary of the shooting. nbcnews.to/2SB5J2L (2/6)

Grieving families and friends say they are bracing for a fresh wave of emotions.

Some are angry about the district’s failure to prevent the shooting. Others are anxious about the anniversary itself, and the memories that will surface. nbcnews.to/2SB5J2L (3/6)

For the parents of the slain students, the anniversary is just another hard day in a year of hard days.

“The anniversary for me is really meaningless because every day for me is Feb. 14,” said Andrew Pollack, whose daughter, Meadow, was killed. nbcnews.to/2SB5J2L (4/6)

The Dworets think about how, someday, kids will see their son's memorial, and ask, “Who was Nick Dworet?”

“Helping other kids get inspired by Nick … I think that makes you feel like we’re doing something," his mother said." nbcnews.to/2SB5J2L (5/6)

For Ryan Petty, all sense of time’s passage stopped when his daughter Alaina was killed.

"Maybe there will be comfort in Feb. 14 that as we go beyond that day, that we won’t be dealing with the firsts,” he said. “I hope that’s true.” nbcnews.to/2SB5J2L (6/6) #NBCNewsThreads