example.js

$('a.link').click(function(){
  // `this` is an anchor DOM element in this context
  // but it's not wrapped in a jQuery wrapper and doesn't
  // have access to any of jQuery's helper methods.
  var $a = $(this);
  // once you wrap it in jQuery, it has access to them,
  // for example to `.attr()`, `.prop()`, `.val()`, etc.
  console.log('Clicked on', $a.attr('href'));
});

Trying to understand $(this)...