The current practices in the generation and disposal of synthetic polymers are largely unsustainable. Several solutions have been intensively pursued to address this global challenge but the current solutions suffer from either significant materials value and quality losses or unintended environmental consequences. To address this challenge, we have designed and synthesized next-generation sustainable polymers that not only exhibit robust physical and mechanical properties required for practical use but can also be thermally and/or chemically depolymerized back to their monomers in quantitative selectivity, yield, and purity, which can be directly repolymerized into the same polymer. This process can be repeated, in principle, infinitely, thereby establishing a circular life cycle of such chemically recyclable polymers. A recount of this journey will emphasize what we all have learned from General Chemistry can inspire us to think more critically when dealing with real research problems.