Allrecipes Cook to Follow: Dakota

We teamed up with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital® to mark this holiday season with inspiring stories from St. Jude patients who love to cook. Say hello to Dakota!

About me: I'm Dakota and am 15 years old. I am homeschooled, originally because of cancer, but now so I can practice golf every day.

My cooking story: I enjoy cooking and used it as something fun to help me get through cancer treatment. I enjoyed the cooking classes each week and would help cook and create new dishes at home. I also still help my mom with dinners.

My favorite things to cook: My favorite thing to cook is cheeseburgers. I actually made my own burger recipe and it is one of my family's all-time favorite meals.

My favorite foods: I love to eat. I like anything grilled and cheeseburgers of all types. I enjoy eating foods with a lot of flavor and seasonings and I like to try new things.

Describe a typical dinner with your family: We are a meat-and-potato family — or hearty pastas. We also eat a lot of vegetables.

My favorite things to do: Golf is definitely my favorite thing to do. I also developed a love for golf during treatment. I spend 5-6 hours a day practicing and am working to play for a Division I college.

What I love most about the holidays: My favorite thing about the holidays is definitely the food. My grandparents make amazing everything, and we all stuff ourselves. The holidays also brings all the family together and I love hanging out with everyone.

Best holiday memory: Family dinners with my cousins and family I don't see often is definitely my favorite holiday memories.

What I want to do when I grow up: I want to be a professional golfer when I grow up.

If I could have a superpower: Super speed.

My closest thing to an actual superpower: I'm a cancer survivor!

My favorite food from St. Jude: My favorite food to eat in cafeteria was St. Jude's mac-and-cheese bar. And my favorite food we cooked in cooking class was fish tacos.

If I had to describe St. Jude in one word: Miraculous.

My advice for kids going through what I did: Always look at the positive and keep smiling. Dr. Inaba (my doctor) told me in my first week at St. Jude to make sure I always smile, even when I don't feel like it. It helped a lot and I still practice that daily.

Best advice I ever got: To keep smiling, from Dr. Inaba

Best advice I ever gave: To keep smiling and look for the bright side of everything.

Allrecipes is thrilled to be teaming up with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital® in support of its lifesaving mission: Finding cures. Saving children.® We hope you will Join Allrecipes in Supporting St. Jude, giving generously, to help kids like Dakota and Avery Ella. Read their inspiring stories—and then give what you can by simply clicking the donate button.