As we wrap up 2022, we're looking back at some of the moments and themes that defined our year.

Why it matters: Boston had a historic year in politics, sports and, for better or worse, transportation.

🚃 The T: Maybe, just maybe, we'll remember 2022 as the year of MBTA’s reckoning. Transit officials couldn't ignore the questions of federal inspectors, who found unsafe conditions and severe worker shortages.

• The T wasn't all bad, though. The Green Line extension is finally live and can take Bostonians to Union Square or Tufts University's campus without transfers.

🗳 Politics: For the first time, Massachusetts elected women as governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.

• Gov.-elect Maura Healey is not only the first woman in the corner office, but also the first openly lesbian governor.
• The Democratic prosecutor campaigned on a promise to protect the state's abortion protections, especially in the aftermath of the Dobbs decision.

🏀 Sports: The Boston Celtics making the NBA Finals gave Bostonians something to root for when every other sports team floundered.

• Celtics legend Bill Russell managed to see their meteoric rise last season before dying at age 88.
• The Celtics faced scrutiny later this fall after The Athletic reported coach Ime Udoka had an "improper intimate and consensual relationship" with a female employee. He was suspended for this season.
• Meanwhile, fans are preparing to place bets on the Celtics and other Boston teams now that Massachusetts legalized sports betting.

🏥 Health care: Hospitals remain at, or just below, their limits treating patients with COVID-19, RSV, the flu and other respiratory diseases.

• Hospitals also took in hundreds of behavioral health patients weekly, as well as migrants and longtime residents seeking shelter.
• Boston Children's Hospital faced a firestorm of harassing messages and threats over its transgender health care program, but that hasn’t deterred health care workers from continuing to provide gender-affirming care.

❌ Layoffs: Tech companies ranging from Roomba maker iRobot to internet provider Starry slashed their workforces this year.

🌆 Downtown: Downtown neighborhoods still see less traffic than before the pandemic.

Some moments defined the Boston area in ways no headline or photo can capture.

• We want to honor Boston's best here.

🤷‍♀️ The "give no effs" award: No one is more deserving of this superlative than the passenger who jumped into the Charles River after an Orange Line train caught fire in July.

• We may not know your name, but you spoke for all of us when you effectively said "f--k it" and took the plunge.

🤬 M@sshole of the Year: The wild turkeys take this home for terrorizing Dorchester drivers and Cantabrigian cats alike.

💰 Surprise money award: To 62F, also known as the tax-rebate trigger law. The 1986 law virtually everyone but the Baker administration forgot about unexpectedly boosted taxpayers' bank accounts at the end of the year.

👩‍❤️‍👨 Wife guy of the year: To the Cambridge man who married "Jenny from the Block," aka J.Lo.

• He's even gone on Starbucks runs with her, but we know his one true love will always be an iced coffee from Dunkin'.

💀 Most likely to survive an apocalypse: The rats. Let's face it, Boston has the highest number of rodent sightings nationwide, and they've built their own tunnel networks underground.

• They don't call us "Rat City" for nothing.

We must really like pickleball and Pallas's cats, at least according to our Google searches.

Driving the news: The tech giant's recently released list of 2022 search trends shows Boston was just one of two places that had pickleball as a top trending "near me" search. The other was Philly.

• Other top "near me" searches included gas prices, oil prices and prom dresses.

Boston's top trending animal search was for a Pallas's cat and the top trending recipe was a Dirty Shirley.

Go deeper with Google's Boston recap.

💼 See current open positions on our Job Board.

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A Massachusetts doctor was arrested on charges that she punched a police officer during the Jan. 6 insurrection. (NBC Boston)

🚃 Gov.-elect Maura Healey retained executive search firm Krauthamer & Associates to find the MBTA's next general manager in light of Steve Poftak's resignation. (Globe)

More than 3,000 New Bedford homes still have a lead service line, but Mayor Jon Mitchell has not yet responded to calls to fund lead pipe removal efforts. (New Bedford Light)