Over break, as you may have guessed by the title, I want to see Martin Scorsese’s newest movie, "The Wolf of Wall Street."

Leonardo DiCaprio plays the high powered penny stock broker, Jordan Belfort, who  made $49 million the year he turned 26 and, more than likely, spent it on cocaine, quaaludes, fast cars, helicopters, boats, prostitutes and buying gifts to make his gorgeous wife forgive him for incidents with said prostitutes. The movie was a three hour romp through the world of Wall Street in the 90s, which was like the largest fraternity you’ve ever seen, magnified 100 times. It went over the trials and tribulations of Jordan’s life, until (spoiler alert) he is arrested on a litany of charges and sentenced to three years in jail.

Fast forward to when I returned to school.I realized EVERYONE had seen this movie. Whether it was awkwardly with their parents, alone, with friends or bootlegged, everyone was talking about this film. It was a lot like when the first Hangover movie came out – people were quoting the characters, talking about their favorite scenes and how awesome a person Belfort was, which strikes me as odd. I guess I can blame the film for romanticizing a character like Belfort, who, as I stated above, was a federal criminal, stole people’s money, was a drug addict, cheated on his wife with hookers and was just a plain old asshole.

Belfort should not be memorialized or emulated. He should serve as a cautionary tale of what happens when you get rich quickly at a young age and how it can all come crashing down around you. When we leave Purdue, I hope all of you make $49 million when you are twenty six, but I also hope you do it properly and don’t screw people over to make your money. Yes, it is cool to own boats and cars and mansions, but it is not cool to sit around thinking how you can get into the penny stock game, side step the Securities Exchange Commission and make money by screwing people over. That would make you no better than Belfort. As for the drug addiction, I hope you never fall into a state where your yacht is sinking and you make your best friend get your illegal prescription medication because you refuse to die sober. I also hope you do not cheat on your beautiful wives with hookers, because that is plain disgusting.

At the end of the day, we should take Wolf for what it is – a fun movie that paints a picture of an out of control twenty something who eventually learns his lesson and has to do right after he is released from jail. We should not, as a generation of people who have all, apparently, seen this film, try and be like Belfort, or throw Wall Street themed parties, or test the waters of the cocaine and prostitution trades because then we would wind up with a generation of criminals who are doing three years in federal prison.