Joel Antonio De La Cruz Paredes' Obituary
Joel Antonio De La Cruz Paredes passed away unexpectedly in Orlando, FL, on June 6, 2021 at the age of 24, after a car accident.
The youngest of 3 boys, Joel was born to Cesar De La Cruz and Sonia Paredes on December 17, 1996, Joel was very happy and lovable as a baby. He was very intelligent from a young age. When he was in 2nd grade, he was chosen to be a part of a gifted class. Some of his passions were baseball, video games, and camping. He and his brother Jonathan loved playing baseball. Joel was an outfielder. He and Jonathan would play catch outside and practice almost everyday. Joel loved to play video games. He started making pixelated video games from the age of 12. It was obvious that he was a special child. Eventually he joined the boy scouts in Homestead, he loved to go camping with his friends at Troop 69 and Venture Club 69. He was spirited and adventurous and loved by his troop. He grew to become a strong hiker and leader that helped teached a programming class to 20 kids, some that pursued tech careers because of him.
Joel graduated from Keys Gate High School in 2015 and went on to go to Florida Polytechnic University to study computer science and later transferred to Florida International University where he graduated in 2019. While in college, he interned for FPL and twice for Google which eventually became a full time software engineer job with them in 2020 in New York. He later moved to Orlando to be with his friends while he worked remotely. He had plans to eventually create his own company in Japan and retire by the age of 30.
His family was not expecting the loss of Joel or for his life to be cut so short so soon. They are devastated by this loss and will feel the absence of Joel forever. He was loved so much by his family and friends. He will be forever missed.
Joel survived by his mother Sonia Paredes, his father Cesar De La Cruz, and his two older brothers, Junior and Jonathan De La Cruz.
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