public static function start() { $database = "tardissh_mjm287"; $username = "******"; $password = "******"; //:: you are dealing with something that is static //you can't use the this because this references the current instance of //an object. self says to refer to your own class self::$connection = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname={$database}", $username, $password); self::$connection->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION); return self::$connection; }