I think the one real lesson that comes up over and over, for me anyway, is that you have to trust yourself before anything else. Your heart, intuition, whatever you need to call it at the time...my Aunts helped me figure that out pretty quickly, luckily.
Besides, the whole mortal rule is stupid.
I can't say I've been turned into anything really. My cousin had this obsession with putting people she didn't like into jars...and she sort of turned me into a doll once, but other than that...nope. Just a lot of other weird and random issues.