I am very pleased with my NATS results! I was not expecting to be only two points away from making finals. On the other hand, I realize that if I had practiced a little more, especially on the French piece, I might have actually made finals. But I guess that's just a motivation for next year. I was expecting to get grilled on my French because, as they pointed out, I am not solid on my diphthongs and I don't quite understand the French vowels. However, I am super glad that I did not mess up on words or switch the two main runs (which I had done a couple times in practice).
As for Down in the Forest, I was pretty nervous because I did not do so hot on it on recital last week. On recital, I started the piece very timidly and did not open up my voice until the second half of the piece. At NATS, right before I walked in, a girl gave me some great advice: the adrenaline that is produced when you're nervous is the exact same adrenaline that is produced when you're excited. So...I went into my NATS "audition" telling myself that I was just super excited to share these pieces with the judges and everyone who was listening instead of being nervous. It helped tremendously!!