so `*this` gets a reference to the object it was called on (in this case, `vector&`)
sorry I'm a bit confused. why does it return a reference? the dereference operator `*` is used to access the value that a pointer points to ```cpp #include int& f(){ int* x = new int{8},; *x+=8; return *x; // why not &x }, int main(){ int x = f(); std::cout << x << '\n'; }, ``` why not &x