Some love advice please.... :)?

So first love. feelings still there. he's away in the army. I'm going into my 2nd yr of college. i want to stay friends, but we both still think about each other everyday. I need to let go of him because my family doesn't want to see me with him again and neither do my friends. And I think he has changed and that it might be different for us in the future where it might not work. And he has a girlfriend (or ex now since he has left). And that hurt me lots. So now he wrote me a letter from the army after a week saying "I haven't stopped thinking about since I got here. I keep looking at your picture, and reading the back. I miss your smile so much, I remember laying on your bed with your head on my chest and sometimes getting up with a drool spot on my shirt. hahaha, I miss the small things like that. Hope to hear from you soon. Missing you." (he said other things, but that's the gist.) should I forget about what other people think and risk another possible heartbreak? or MOVE ON?