You never truly move on, do you?

Can you forget someone you once loved and cared for to the extent that no memories of them ever affect you? Is that even remotely possible? I once had that question thrown to me. Many people have told me that it is impossible to open up their hearts after a relationship ends. I have been a witness to this too, watching friends completely shut themselves off from the opposite sex or the word Love itself. I always argued that lightning does not strike the same place twice and that there is always a someone out there for everyone, if only you dared to step out of your set boundary.
However, today, as I lie on my bed typing this out, I am looking at this issue through another lens, one that I believe only those loved and hurt can truly understand.

The human heart is a funny little thing. You think it listens to you, but it does not. It has a mind of its own and it plays by its own rule. Hence, the heart somehow can never understand why things that did not work the first time around won't work how many times you try, especially when there is another heart concerned. How do one tell their hearts to stop hurting when the cure itself is the main reason for the hurt? Funny how when we love, we never stop to even think once that it might end. And funny how now that it has ended, we still hold on to those happy memories, sometimes letting go of the bitter moments to just somehow feel the joy of being loved once again. But then again, memories have a way of tearing the most toughest of tough souls, I should know.
So, how do we bid goodbye to an old flame, a once-upon-a-time crush, or even someone we thought was our own prince charming? Is that possible? Is it possible to walk away from love and never look back again? 

I wish that love came with warning bells, or with expiration period so that when I love, I will specifically know when to throw it away not looking back, just like how we dispose expired bottles of sauces or a loaf of bread that has reached its expiration date. But then again love is not made up of sauces or breads is it? It is made up of hearts that intertwine in ways even our supreme creator can't deduce.

Ps: So I suppose, it is better to have loved and lost rather than never being loved? That I will never know, for nor am I loved nor do I have the courage to love.