You may be a person wearing a free Paris T-shirt sobbing for the fate of Paris Hilton and crying for her freedom, or a person who believes that Paris Hilton deserves to do her time in jail.

Or you may even be a person like Arnold Schwarzenegger (ex-celebrity and now Governor of California) who does not want to be bothered by the Paris Hilton nitty-gritty case.

No matter which person you are, we may agree on one thing that the detention of Paris Hilton will not only give valuable lessons for the Hilton Hotel heiress herself but also for all of us.

What are the lessons?

Don’t drink and drive

Paris Hilton, a notorious party girl, was arrested for drunken driving in her Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren in September 2006. She pleaded guilty to reckless driving, was sentenced to three years’ probation and got her license suspended. In February 2007, she was found violating her probation and was discovered by police that she was driving on a suspended license. That was the reason for which she was later sentenced to jail for 43 days beginning 5 June 2007.

This is a straight-forward lesson not only for Paris Hilton herself but also for us. Driving under the influence of alcohol is not only dangerous to us but also to other road users. We might end up killing ourselves or other innocent people. The jail sentence is the right measure in order to take any reckless driver off the street, at least temporarily.

The simple life

Paris Hilton starred in many movies. Among others were “House of Wax” and “National Lampoon’s Pledge This!”. It was on television, however, that she gained national recognition as the star of “The Simple Life”, a candid reality show. You can get the DVD of the movies and the reality TV show at Amazon.com. The premiere of “The Simple Life” received a huge ratings boost for her infamous sex tape featuring herself and Rick Solomon, who happened to be the ex-husband of actress Shannon Doherty.

Paris Hilton has surely found out that her stay at the Los Angeles’ Century Regional Detention Center is no trip to a Hilton Hotel.

She has surely learnt that prison life is a true simple life – way much simpler than her life shown in her reality TV show, “The Simple Life”. There is no pillow, no makeup, no hand phone, minimal TV-watching time and certainly no friends like Britney Spears and Nicole Ritchie to party at all.

That’s a good survival lesson for Paris Hilton. It is a lesson for us too that we should always remember to be ready to make our life simpler.

Money can’t buy everything

Paris Hilton was born on February 17th, 1981, to Rick and Kathy Hilton, making her the great-granddaughter of Conrad Hilton, founder of the Hilton hotels and source of the family fortune – estimated at $300 million. She has a fat trust fund as she is the heiress to the Hilton millions and her glamorous life make her seem like a perfect celebrity for Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

During her time in jail, Paris Hilton will surely realize that there are things that she still could not buy even though she inherits millions. As she is not above the law, her money cannot buy freedom.

That’s an important lesson not only for Paris Hilton but also for all of us. No matter how rich and popular we could be, we still have to abide by the law and our wealth cannot buy everything in this world, such as freedom, health and happiness.

In fact, this lesson reminds us to appreciate freedom, health and happiness that we are currently having even though we don’t have much money in the bank.

Let us hope that with the lessons learned from the case; both Paris Hilton and all of us will become a much better person.

So, keep wearing your free Paris T-shirt if you are a Paris Hilton fan. If you are her critic, don’t worry too much as Paris Hilton will definitely have learnt some good lessons and could be a much better celebrity once she is out of jail.