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@Gord001 , since you asked a great question, please know, deep down inside your mind, you are starting to get this.
@Tony talks about strings as 1 (the high E) to 6 (the low E), or by open string low tone (E,A,D,G,B,E). This is standard tuning, and he talks about both as some people can’t get the notes in their minds, and some cannot get the numbers in their minds. (Or learned one way or the other in previous guitar learning.) Pick one. Either, if it is the way you think about it consistently, will lead to more comprehension.
Frets and numbers are the routine way to teach it. The 2nd fret of a string (pick one) is always the same sound. If you are learning to read standard music notation, there will be a note attached to each of the 72 fret positions on a 12 fret to the body guitar. I did that once as a youth with a cello (no frets), but have never even tried with the guitar. Do you need to know those notes to learn? No. Does it help? Some people, but it is a lot to keep in my mind, so I don’t have them memorized, and rarely try to read standard notation.
However, as @Carol-3M-Stillhand mentioned, a lot of people work with Chord Shapes. So, an “E” chord is 1st Fret on the 3(G) string [a G#), 2nd fret on the 4(D) string [an E] and 2nd fret on the 5(A) string [a B]. That shape is always the same, and with a Barre Chord or Capo, becomes a new sound up the Fretboard, but it is still the “E” Shape. (@Tony has a Barre Chords lesson group in the “Skills” to get practice with that.)
Again, if you are inclined to want the notes instead of fret numbers to help you learn, pick a method. But you need not know the notes to play the chords, and the idea of different positions of your fretting hand creating the sounds is helpful as a mental image to many of us (me included).
So, a bright question, with too long answers, as you can see, we all have a slightly different and slightly same take. But if you continue to work at it, it will come to you, and become, eventually, 2nd nature. (And as for the 5 months, thing, well, in July, with breaks for life, I will be starting my 61st year since I got the first guitar, and only in the last 2 or so has it taken.) I ask questions, like you just did, and listened to some of the advice here, and it is working.
Welcome to TAC. It is great to have you along for the Journey.