Hey @Lemon_Dolphin
Because I'm around your age and I certainly have not been in your shoes before, I cannot give you an absolute answer or any advice that might be helpful. However, as a person who has been and is still trying to move on from a past relationship, I thought I could give you some insights into my experience.
As I read through your post, what caught my attention the most was:" And moving on means forgetting; So I don't know what to do. Do I move on which will hurt when I do it? Or do I keep letting myself bring up these memories and hoping we will go back to what it was like before? Either will hurt but I don't know."
I see myself through your words and I feel you a lot. But from my past experience, I don't think moving on means forgetting. And yes, it does hurt. I lived in denial for almost a year while trying to tell myself that I should not think of these memories anymore. But the more I tried, the more intense these memories kept coming back. So long story short, a few months later I started allowing myself to move forward with these feelings still lingering in my heart. And now I'm here, still think of that person and the memories with them once in a while but it stops right there. I still ask myself what else have I should done differently sometimes but gladly it has gotten better. Now instead of beating myself up because I'm unable to "forget", I'm learning to treasure those pieces of memories and hope for the future, though it's still painful sometimes knowing everything is now the past.
So what I want to say is, unless your situation is resolved in any other way, if moving on is the resort that you must choose, I hope you will be gentle to yourself and acknowledge all your emotions as the fact that they are all valid. Even if you need to move on, I think there is no need to forget, especially when those are the beautiful memories you seem to cherish. I hope you're okay.
