Why is hydrogen an electron donor

Going on the guiding principle that I was taught (O level here) that elements try to attain a noble gas electronic configuration in any reaction why does hydrogen give it's electron up rather than try to gain one to have two like helium? What property tips it that way?

it's called electronegativity. Hydrogen has a high electronnegativity thus tends to be more an electron donor.

I think hydrogen actually sometimes accepts an electron too to have the configuration of He, but chemically speaking, hydrogen is a metal, which is primarily defined as elements that tend to donate electrons. You can tell what's considered a metal from the line drawn towards the right of the periodic table, and hydrogen is placed on the very left side.

*Note: I'm not a chem expert so... yeah. This is just what I learned in chem. Hope it helps!